Me and the bee and husband Johnny
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Fiona and I made some paper hearts the other day. Then we took some honey sticks and turned them into Valentine’s flowers. I punched out some circles from yellow and black construction paper and tracing paper and we glued them together into bees for the flowers. They were a nice little project to make and Fiona gave them to friends in her preschool class.
Note: It’s easier to punch out the tracing paper and the construction paper together; the tracing paper alone was too unstable.
I have been wanting to make plaster casts with the bee for ages, ever since I saw BloesemKids’ plaster relief project. I’ve collected juice boxes and rice milk boxes and I even have plaster of Paris. Then when Art Projects for Kids showed how to make dinosaur plaster casts, I knew we had to try it.
I thought about using Art Project for Kids’ method of making a mold but instead, I went with the juice boxes as BloesemKids suggested. They were small and I haven’t worked with plaster in decades so I wanted to keep things a little air-tight and manageable for now. Next time, we’ll try Art Project for Kids’ method because I see how it would be easier to get impressions on the unbound clay. The image would go off the edge and the objects would be easier for small hands to press into the clay.
As much as I like creating things with Fiona, I like making things with quality and permanence best. We’ve made things out of painted paper towels, egg cartons, or pipe cleaners but they are ephemeral objects. We can hang these little casts up on the wall and they will look amazing. Plus, plaster casting is a skill she can use throughout her life. I know I am looking forward to making more of them.
Reading Bloesem Kids this morning, I found a link to a craft project swap for young kids. It looks like fun so I signed up.
In addition to the successful gymnastics class, the half-hour Arts and Crafts that I signed Fiona up for at the park district was also a big hit. The teacher was nice and didn’t mind if I stayed during the class. The kids made a paper ladybug; Fiona’s had twelve legs and as many spots as she could fit on it.
Today, we went to open gym but before and after we worked on caterpillars made from half an egg-carton. I swear I just saw the idea the other day but I can’t figure out where. It’s an old idea and googling “egg carton caterpillar” will bring up lots of instructions for it.
On Saurday we tried a new way of dyeing eggs using food coloring instead of tablets. First, we splashed the eggs with vinegar, then we squirted them with drops of food coloring. We didn’t restrain ourselves to only ‘two shades (any more and your colors may get muddy)’ but they seemed to turn out okay. It was a quick easy way to get vivid colors and the mess was pretty much contained to the sink. The sink did require some scrubbing, afterwards. And the bee did get blue fingers for a while. And a blue neck where she had an itch during the process.
The coloring was pretty intense and stained through the shells. The naked eggs looked a little like speckled sparrow eggs.
Yesterday I made a puppet theater for Fiona out of a cardboard box. I was going to just fold the flaps from the top and bottom in so the front and back were open but it was a bit wobbly. I considered the box for a while and came up with a different plan, which I documented and wrote up.
I think it came out pretty well. It has a back wall so you can’t see straight through it but it’s quite sturdy. I imagine the back wall can be decorated or we could make different set backgrounds and change them out for different plays.
After I finished it, I made some paper puppets that we glued to popsicle sticks. Fiona made an Oobi puppet and a pair of scissors puppet. Then, to show her what the puppet theater was all about, I put on a production of The Three Little Pigs. She was very pleased. She put on her own production of The Three Little Pigs. Then she asked me to play out The Three Little Pigs again. I had to refuse a third show due to a prior engagement.
I really need to come up with some crafts to do with the bee. I love working with her but I haven’t had much of anything in mind lately. We tried papier mache the other day but it was bit too fussy and definitely too messy for her hands. She was not pleased with the messy hands.
What I really need to do is get the sewing machine working (or, really, buy a new one) and start working on sewing things. That’s what I’m interested in and I think she would enjoy trying it with me. We could do straight lines and paper hearts. I recently took sewing class and made a pillow and performed a mysterious zipper trick.
Now I want to make a thousand thousand things. Fiona could draw a doll, we could make an apron, or a mouse, or a puppet theater.
I have been busy these days crocheting scarves. Big, thick scarves.
Now that my Big Family Photo Project is finished and gone I am looking around and finding lots of other things I want to work on. I have been shoving boxes around in the basement–it is a lot like playing Tetris–and finding a lot of stuff that I am ready to get rid of. John continues to work on the upstairs apartment; it’s just about time to pick out wall colors. I am signed up for a sewing class in about a month. And I think my brain has been working on a book but it doesn’t seem to be getting anywhere past the concepts. Come on, brain! Put some action in that scene!
The past week or so, the little bee’s drawings have become much more detailed. She is drawing ears and hats in addition to limbs. Yesterday, she drew a bird and a fish that looked like a bird and a fish. I try hard not to fuss too much over them with her because I have seen her shy away from things that way. But here, on the Internet, I can say: Wow! Look at how amazing these drawings are! She’s only 2-and-a-half! I’m sure it’s because we draw all the time here. In fact, when we move (to the new house that will be perfect and help us lose weight and fight crime) I hope to start up a weekly family drawing time.
