Easter Crafts

One my favorite things to do with Lydia is to make crafts. I think it's great to help her learn how to follow directions and to be patient with herself while making things. Since on both Saturday and Sunday mornings Vivian slept in until 11am, shocking to many I am sure, (she is a little rocker and stayed up until 11pm, so she slept her required 12 hours) Lydia and I took advantage of the time and got our craft on.

To me it's important to have a transition activity, this keeps her attention while I prepare the next thing we are going to do. I usually find these at the dollar store (which if you have a craft kid is THE place to go.) This time, I had her start with play-do. She loves it and it's easy. And the key is that she doesn't get to do it a lot, so when she does she really enjoys it. I have learned a couple of things about play-do the name brand stuff is the best (no dollar store here usually) and if you keep play-do for years (I mean 10-15 years) it grows stuff.

We started the Easter crafts with a window cling. I bought the contact paper last year for another project that we never go to, so I decided it was time. I cut small pieces of colored paper into squares and triangles. Most folks use tissue paper so it functions like a suncatcher, I did not have tissue paper and never seem to have it when I need it for gift bags, so I went with construction paper. I free hand cut two shapes, one of an egg and the other of a bunny.  It was a little tricky to figure out how to keep it down and have her able to see what she was doing so I just taped it, sticky side up. I put white paper under it which helped but was only marginally helpful. At first she liked it but then she got bored and dumped everything on there. Luckily the extras just shake off. I think it will be a better project for Vivi next year. However, we talked about the colors and shapes which at this point she knows well.

For my transition activity, I dug out a $1 to go cup that she colored the insert and decorated. She thought it was fun to use the cup and that her picture was on the inside of it.

While she decorated her new cup, I was getting the foam eggs ready. She decorated these with stickers (these were extras from last year. She made egg cards for family and friends) which takes her a lot of time. She is very specific about where the stickers go, but doesn't really care what stickers I give her. I then glued them onto a paper plate that I cut the center out of to make a door wreath. We are letting it dry completely before we hang it.

Perhaps the simplest, and the one she enjoyed the most was the bunny mask. Once again just a $1 investment, though this was purchased at JoAnns, not the dollar store. She colored it with markers (which she loves to use) and quickly played with it.

 

 

Vivian finally did wake up and she enjoyed playing in her new play space. Saturday morning while she slept, I put together this corral that we borrowed from friends. We bought alphabet mats as the "flooring." Vivian is on the move and we wanted to be sure that she had her safe play space where she could crawl and play with things without being tripped over by a toddler. Lydia, of course, likes it too. We explained that right now this space was specifically for Vivian but she was welcomed to join her too.