This week’s craft wasn’t a craft. It was a science project. We decided to do one of the experiments in the science kit I got David for Christmas. It was the exploding volcano.
Here’s David doing it:
And since photos cannot capture this one, here’s a bit of video I shot. It’s one minute and might be boring for you. We’re whispering because Jake was napping. Nathaniel is screaming cause he’s in the high chair and out of puffs.
This was a really fun one for me. I always loved playing with my Chemistry set as a little girl and thanks to David, I got to relive a bit of that. I might have even enjoyed it more than he did.
We kept the jello container from last week to do one of these.
The source link.
We used some red scrap extras to make the roof.
I attempted to draw some windows and doors on another scrappy extra.
David helped me glue them on.
Of course, no project is complete without stickles, so we used them to decorate.
And here’s our final product, left to dry overnight.
It was pretty dark by then which is why we have blurry-ish photos. I love the whole scene in the original post and we’ll have to add to it at some point. But this is a cute start.
Ok I think this doesn’t even count as crafting but hey some weeks that’s all we do. This was the inspiration:
The source link.
We improvised a bit and used pretzels for the mouth and M&Ms for the eyes. And then we used some cookie decorations we had for the nose and teeth and it ended up looking more like a green spongebob than a frog. So here it was.
Looks great I think and David enjoyed eating every piece of it.
What I didn’t realize until I sat down to do one of the crafts on our list was that most of these require materials we don’t seem to have at hand. (So while I am good at making lists of ideas, I neglected to make one for supplies. Good job, eh?) One of the only items on the list that had simple supplies was the paper-plate dogs.
The full tutorial from kids craft weekly.
Believe it or not, I didn’t have white paper plates, but I did have some heavy weight paper. So I drew the doggie. (yep, I made him too fat at first but it didn’t matter since we cut it out.)
After I cut it out, we turned it inside out so the drawing lines would not show. We taped the head and the tail. Then I drew an eye and a nose and David colored it in.
We then cut up a tiny bit of gray fabric to make his ears. He was already looking pretty good by then.
The tutorial then has some glue and dirt for the spots. But I had something easier, so I pulled my stickles and drew some circles for David to color in.
And here’s our final product, left to dry overnight.
Looks pretty cute if you ask me.
A few weeks ago, we went to David’s school for the bi-annual parent-teacher conference. One of the things the teacher said was that David is well-rounded in that he is interested in art as much as playing with trains and blocks. They thought it was wonderful that he enjoyed art and baking and I totally agree. So I decided that this year, I will take time (at least) once a week to sit with him and do some crafts.
Since I know from experience that it’s more likely to get done if I already have a list of ideas, I made an initial list of ideas. I might do all of these or none of these and I will likely add to it throughout the year. If you happen to know of fun craft ideas for kids (he’s going to be five years old in February), please please leave me a comment and I will add it to my list.
As we do them, I will post them here and change these links so you have both our creation and the original idea’s link.
I’ve also made a visual version of this on tumblr so we can quickly look at the photos and David can pick what he wants to do that week.
Here’s my initial list:
- Cut-out stencil prints
- Halloween bats
- Halloween gourds
- snowman doorstop
- leaves art
- make a kite
- miraculous leaf rubbings
- messy leaf prints
- robots
- Paper plate dinosaurs
- Paper people chains
- stencils
- flowers
- flower pot
- xmas advent
- xmas countdown advent
- nature bracelets
- origami tree
- wrapping bottles
- yarn pompom
- felt xmas trees
- fabric ornaments
- hanukkah – city
- cereal box houses
- fun wreaths
- leaf stenciling
- popsicle pencil holder
- paper heart
- glue resist dinosaur
- froggy jello
- recycled milk carton truck
- felt cuffs
- bath ice cubes
- sun prints
- body flip book
- bead bugs
- ice cream sandwiches
- juice box boats
- ice cream cones
- felt caterpillars
- fairy wings
- fall tree
- felt shapes
- fishing game
- apple trees
- apple cake
- crow puppets
- halloween mini pumpkins
- halloween haunted house
- spider cookies
- gourd ghosts
- halloween bat garland
- halloween painted jar luminaries
- 3-d tree with felt leaves
- paper chains
- yogurt cup houses
- thanksgiving wreath
- acorn painting
- paper roll squirrels
- gingerbread man puppets from felt
A wide range of ideas. Some easier and some more challenging. Here’s to a year of crafting with my (big) little one. As Nathaniel grows up, he might join us for a few of these, too.
My mom tried to prepare me for David being jealous when the baby came. I told her that David wasn’t that kind of kid, but she said that I’d never know. Most kids are jealous, she said. I was skeptical but I stayed quiet.
Now I can officially say she was wrong.
Here’s David putting on a puppet show for Nathaniel, just to make sure he wasn’t sad.
Nathaniel loved every minute of it.
And here’s the puppet-master.
And then when he was done putting on the show. He read to his little brother.
Yep, he’s the best brother ever. We are so blessed.
Since Jake was out of town, David and I spent the last two days
together. The sun is finally coming out here in Palo Alto so, this
afternoon, we took a walk around the neighborhood. We had a little
conversation on our walk:
me: David, you know what?
David: You know what?
me: No, David when I say ‘You know what?’ you say ‘What?’
David: What?
me: I love you!
(a few seconds pass)
me: David, you know what?
David: I love you!
My boy, he’s all about skipping steps and getting right to the point.
Videos from David’s birthday.The first one is really long
and has music instead of sound, except for the very end. The second one is a few clips of
voice.
And here are
the photos from the party.
Happy Birthday, my wonderful son.
David doesn’t like to take naps. He often fights on the way to bed. But,
every now and then, he takes these long, peaceful naps. Sometimes they
last three hours. After one of these, he wakes up a little disoriented
but very happy. He’s well rested. Ready to conquer the world.
It takes him a good twenty minutes to go back to his usual self. When
he’s in one of these dazes, I look at him and I can’t believe he’s my
flesh and blood. He’s so pure. So beautiful. His white skin is so
unblemished. He looks like a real-life china doll. I am filled with so
much love for him that I can hardly breathe.
I don’t know how I got lucky enough to have this extraordinary child,
but I am thankful for it every single day.
So David’s finally begun to talk. A lot. He’s funny. Today he even
responded when someone asked his name. He then told me “You Mommy, I
David.” This is big progress for us. I am so glad to see it happening.
And he’s so very entertaining, it’s amazing to watch. You can’t help but
get caught up in it.
He truly is the best thing I ever did.
Every night, after we put David in his crib (yes, he is still in a crib
and he will be until he learns to climb out of it!), I read him a book.
Last week, we started reading the Cat in the Hat and it has quickly
become his favorite book. As soon as Jake puts him down, he starts
chanting “Cat, Hat, cat, hat!” until I show up with the book. Then we
both sit down and I read.
Tonight, I switched to another Dr. Seuss book and when we finished he
said, “More Cat in Hat” and so we read another and then he said “more”
and I said “No more tonight my love, we’ll read more tomorrow.” I so
hope he is like that for the rest of his life.
If I am able to pass on my love of reading to David, it will be one of
the best presents I could ever give him.
I came home early on Thursday due to an appointment and took the time to
take David to MyGym for the free play hour. We were laughing and playing
and just in general having a lot of fun when he ran up to me and hugged
me and said “I Love You.” Completely unprompted. Not as a response. Just
cause.
It was one of the best moments of my life.
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projects for twenty twenty-four
projects for twenty twenty-three
projects for twenty twenty-two
projects for twenty twenty-one
projects for twenty nineteen
projects for twenty eighteen
projects from twenty seventeen
monthly projects from previous years
some of my previous projects
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