Organizing Crafts

As you all know I love all things crafty. My house on the other hand does not. We are busting at the seams here in the King household. Paint, glue, markers, glue, clay, colored sand, play dough, markers, tissue paper, pom poms, googly eyes, card board, stamps and stamp pads...the list goes on and on. How can I possibly coral all of the girls craft materials plus mine? Baby steps! I am not at all an organized soul. I actually have to consciously battle my disorganization on a daily basis. I told my new friend Abbie over at Organizing-life that I must be missing the organization gene! I can relate more to the title of Sharon's blog, Mama's A Mess. (By the way: Sharon is hardly a mess!)

The first step was organizing the girls basics. I put together a basket of basic art supplies that we use daily. I had to store them in plain site due to a storage shortage. Plus they had to be high enough Em (my little wrecking ball) can't reach. That is why they are stored in the dining area in between the wine and the wine glasses. Not ideal but that is all I have to work with. The basket is nice because it hides the contents and is easy to take down for craft time and put pack up afterwards.

I placed little plastic baskets which I had and a few Solo cups in to separate the items. I can grab the basket of markers quickly. The square marker pencil holder in the center of the picture holds those annoying "I'm not a marker" markers. You know the random Magic Pen and Color Wonder markers. So annoying when you go to jot something down and you pick up one of those! So those definitely needed their own spot.

I also organized a shelf for the girls coloring, activity & work books. Plus I came up with a solution for organizing the paper. I am addicted to Korean Seasoned Seaweed. Why is that important? Well, the brand I like comes packaged in really nice heavy duty cardboard box. I have been saving them (because that is what we crazy craft addicts do) waiting for a project to pop into my head. Well, here you go...paper storage! I haven't had a chance to cover them in pretty paper yet but here you get the idea. I cut about 2 inches off the top only to make accessing the paper easier. The bottom box has construction paper, the middle white paper and the top activity pages for Lu taken out of the books for her to work on whenever she wants. If you have any great tips you can pass along please do! I can use all the help you can offer!

This is a work in progress. Next up will be the paints & painting supplies.

Rainsticks and Bookmarks

Flip Flops & Applesauce had a great tutorial on making a rain stick from a wrapping paper tube. We made a mini version from a heavy duty saran wrap tube. It was easy to do and we used up some more of our paintings to decorate it. I punched out stars from some of Lu's paintings we had. It came out very cool and sounds like the rain!

Valerie from Frugal Family Fun Blog made a comment on our What to Do With Your Child's Artwork post and said she makes bookmarks from her kiddos art work. I quickly made this one from some card stock, a star punch, glue and Lu's paintings. I think this would make a nice gift to send to Grandpa for fathers day. There is room on the back to write a sentiment.

Mother Nature Came Calling

OK, I know I have been guilty of complaining about the number of deer that congregate in our back yard...up to 20 at a time! But who can complain when the girls & I get to see three brand new baby fawns up close like this (literally 8 ft away from our house.) The mama gave birth what seemed like moments before. One of the fawns was still wet and the mama still had her birth sac attached (sorry if that was too much info!) The fawns were all wobbly and cute!

Sunday Snapshot

Em & Lu, there is no other word to describe what they are other than, SISTERS. Best buds, confidants, partners in crime and at times mortal enemies. Lucky for me that for these pictures they were adoring best buds!

Don't mess with my sis!

What to do with your childs artwork: Gift Tags

Sometimes it is just fun to smear paint around on paper. No purpose except fun and maybe sensory. Today was one of those days. We ended up with 6 of these colorful pieces of paper. What to do with them...

Card stock, a star shaped punch, glue and some ribbon...

Voila! Simple but cute gift tags.


On a different note...Thanks to Katie (Katie's Nesting Spot) for inspiring us to get out of our lunch rut. Yesterday was letter C day at her house and she made a cat snack for her daughter ER. I thought I would give it a try. You should have seen Lu's eyes grow wide and hear the squeals of delight when she saw her plate. Lu didn't want to eat it at first. She sat and talked about it for ten minutes. Finally I got her to eat an ear and then she was alright with it. She even ate the "crunchy carrots" (her term for them) which she doesn't normally like!

A Trip to the MOMA: Looking at Art

We had a wonderful day visiting Grandma Crackers (that is what all the grand children call my mom) in the city. We went to the MOMA and strolled the Sculpture Garden, ate lunch and looked at some paintings by Picasso, Chagall, Cezanne, Rousseau, and more.

So I thought this would be a good opportunity for me to bang my cultural literacy drum! Even though your bean sprouts are little it doesn't mean that looking at art is wasted on them. Modern Art is easy for young viewers to look at. With a little planning ahead you can have a wonderful time. Check with the museum to see if they have an outdoor area where you can picnic and or a sculpture garden. Find out if they have any kids guides or free programs available (these are usually for children 5+.) Pick a time that is your child's best self time. Meaning not when they are tired and cranky. Go during the week when the museum is less crowded.

Looking at Art:
Ask them to tell you what they see.
What do they think the painting is about.
Ask them if they can find the - fill in the blank.
What do they like/dislike about the painting?
Talk about colors they see.
Talk about emotion (does the painting make you feel happy?)
It is alright to lead them by pointing out something they might have missed.

Example:
Henri Rousseau's The Dream
What do you see?
2 Lions, a bird, a snake...
Do you see the elephant?
Yes! I do!
Emme can you find the moon?
Moo! Moo!
Yes! It must be night time. Lu, where do you think they are?
The jungle!
Do you think the lions look scared?
Yes. Maybe they are afraid of the snake.

At this age it is primarily about looking and describing. Soon they will be able to understand that paintings tell stories. At the end of our looking you can see that Lu began to begin talking about what the painting may be about and not just what she saw. You can also play games with children like eye spy. After we were done looking at The Dream I turned around and saw another Rousseau painting with a lion. I said, Lu I spy another lion! She quickly looked around until she found it. Then we briefly talked about that painting.

I do not recommend for any age to expect them to look at every picture in the gallery. Choose a couple of paintings that interest you and your children. It is no use torturing yourself and them. If you like something then it will show and it will be easier for you to talk about. Don't go expecting to spend a long time. It really depends on your child and their attention span.

Lu asked her Grandma Crackers if she could goto another museum with her next time we came for a visit!

Random Idea: Activity Book

We get sent approx. once a month a large envelope filled with advertising and coupons. Most of it is useless but we hate to throw them away. The ads are blank on one side. I clip them together (bull clip or staples work fine - if your worried about staples cover with thick tape) to make scrap paper pads for the girls. This works well for little ones who go through paper like crazy.

We took it one step further today by making todays scrap pad into an activity book for Lu. Lately she has been going crazy for mazes, folding paper and dot to dots. I just drew a bunch of simple mazes and such on each page. Lu loved it! She esp. liked the simple mazes. I got her a maze coloring book but it was a little too challenging for her.

Folding paper is a very easy to teach. I had Lu bring the bottom of the paper (which I colored orange to help visually) up to the orange line. Line up and then smooth down with your hand to the folded edge. Paper folding is something that you don't think about teaching but is a skill that is helpful.

Color Matching

I see so many great ideas on line it is hard to keep track of them all. Most likely this idea came from seeing various takes on the clothes pin matching game. I have seen great alphabet clothes pin matching activities. If this was your idea please let me know so I can give you proper credit.

This game is a bit advanced for my 21 month old. She can not use the clothes pins properly. The wonderful discovery that came out of this game is that big sis likes to teach little sis and little sis loves it! Seeing the two of them playing with this activity is precious. Lu holds up the pin and says the color she then asks Em where the color is on the plate. Then she attaches the clothes pin for Em. Em likes to take them off at the end and then they start all over again.

Edit: I just found Em correctly pinching the clothes pin. She just needed help lining up the plate to slide the pin onto!

Elephant Girl

Mommy, what can I be when I grow up?
Anything you want to be, sweetie.
I want to be an elephant.
Well...you can take care of elephants...like a zoo keeper.
No Mommy, I want to be an elephant.
Oh. Hmmm. OK. I guess we'll need to get you a bigger bed.
Mommy! You will need to get a bigger house!

Mother of the Year

Look what my Mother-in-law sent me for Mother's Day. Click here. It is too funny! This site inserts your name into a 2 minute Mother of the Year news clip.