Crafting Lately

LB and I have been having so much fun with crafts lately. The website, No Time for Flashcards, has been my big inspiration. I want to do everything on her site. Seriously. And I love that she has lots of crafts that are really minimal in the mess department. This babysitting gig is definitely a little more exhausting than I predicted so the less the mess the better. Crafts have been a good way to fill the time after LB wakes up from his nap and we're waiting on Baby B to wake up. One thing that NTFF has inspired me to do is to try crafts that tie in to favorite books we've been reading. I think it makes the craft more fun and meaningful and it's always a good thing to help your child make associations. I also let favorite movies be an inspiration for crafts too.

Several weeks ago we went to the conservatory because the butterflies are now in bloom. When we were there they were selling caterpillars that you could take home and watch them form their chrysalis and then turn into a butterfly. LB was beyond stoked about it! At first, he wanted the caterpillar to turn into a butterfly RIGHT NOW. It took explaining several times that we had to wait and we read The Very Hungry Caterpillar to help emphasize that it would take some time. He showed my mom the caterpillar one day over Facetime and he said to her in a stern voice, "But we have to wait." Ha! Thankfully, it eventually sunk in. It was cool to watch it crawl around in it's little plastic cup and then slowly make it's chrysalis. There was something about hearing LB say the word "chrysalis" that made me really happy. He just sounded so grown up and studious. And it made me feel like I was actually teaching him something worthwhile.

I wasn't sure if LB would be sad about letting the butterfly go but he was excited and had a good outlook. His friend had a caterpillar too so LB decided that his butterfly was flying off to find his friend's butterfly. I like the way his mind works. He still talks about how his butterfly flew up into the sky. We had also checked out the book, Ten Little Caterpillars, from the library so that was a fun one to read while we had a caterpillar in our house. Of course, NTFF has some great craft ideas for caterpillars and butterflies. We did 2 butterfly crafts and I only took pictures of one of the butterfly crafts we did.  I took pictures of the caterpillar one but since we used LB's actual name for that craft I don't want to show it. But here are the links. They were all fun!

Handprint Butterfly

Coffee Filter Butterfly - *We didn't do this with glitter. I feared the mess. So LB just used pastel markers.

Custom Caterpillar  - *This was great for us because LB is starting to get really good at recognizing his name and knowing the letters in his name. So I loved testing him on this to choose the letters in his name and to put them in the right order. Thankfully, he has a short name.

Here is LB's handprint butterfly. He was proud of it. I wasn't a huge fan of the addition of airplane stickers but whatever it was his vision. I suppose airplanes and butterflies are both up in the sky.

Ever since Christmas, LB has been a big fan of Finding Nemo. He loves the part where Dory and Marlin come across all the jellyfish and Dory calls the jelly fish a "little squishy squishy." He laughs every time. So I found a great jellyfish craft and it was a huge hit! Here is the original link.

Cupcake Jellyfish

First, I had him color the cupcake liners or the jellyfish bodies and then he colored the ocean where they live. As a side note, LB has me a bit confused when it comes to his handedness. He kicks exclusively with his left foot, uses scissors much better with his left hand and swings a bat left handed but when he eats and uses markers he goes back and forth between his hands. Or as you can see he does both at the same time. It's baffling.

He struggled a bit with the tape and getting the stingers on. I didn't have double sided tape so I just had to hold it for him and then it was fine.

As soon as D got home that day this was the first thing LB showed to him. I love it when he gets excited about his creations.

The last one I'll share is LB's spider. Another recent library check out favorite was The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle. He was sad to "give another kid a turn" when it was time to take it back. I was looking for paper plate crafts and came across the spider one so I knew we had to do it. This one was also another reminder to me to respect LB's vision when it comes to art. As LB was putting the stickers on the paper plate I kept encouraging him to put them "all over the spider." But he wanted nothing to do with that. So I dropped it. Once he glued on the eyes he said, "It's my happy spider." Oops. He was making a happy face. Silly Mommy.

Don't you love how he's smiling at his happy spider? The photos are crummy but you get the idea. The only thing I had to do on this one was punch the holes in the plate and then he did the rest. I like to think getting the pipe cleaners through the holes was good find motor practice. He enjoyed doing that part too. He did it "all by myself!"

Although, I look at his baby pictures and get sad sometimes this preschool stuff is so much more fun. Sure babies are cute and sweet and don't talk back and you don't have to play chase with them but there is nothing like hearing him say, "My going to tell my daddy about this." That's validation at its best.