Tag Archives: crafting with children

Decorating With the Boys

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We’re still working on establishing holiday traditions are our place, but one thing that has taken hold here is making our own Christmas tree decorations, and then of course decorating the tree together with our things.  I started this years ago, I think when my oldest son was just three years old.  There are lots of things that little children can help make; here are a few of our staples.

  • Salt Dough Ornaments – so easy to make, perfectly tactile for little hands, and fun to paint (sparkles!) and decorate.  These hang on from year to year if you’re careful with them.  To make:  Mix 2 cups flour and 1 cup salt, and add 2 Tbsp oil.  Slowly add 3/4 to 1 cup of water, until you have a smooth, clay-like consistency.  Make shapes that you like, and then bake at 250 degree for about an hour.  If you want to hang your ornaments, remember to poke a hole in it before baking (a straw is ideal for this, but I never have one and just use a bamboo skewer).
  • Dried Orange Slices – older children could help slice these, and then you just bake in an oven on low temperature until they’re dry.  They smell lovely, are so pretty on the tree, and even young kids can poke them with picture wire to make hooks for hanging.
  • Popcorn and Cranberry Strings – simple and festive on the tree.  It’s best to use day-old popcorn for stringing as it’s less likely to crack when you sew them together.  With supervision, little hands can do this, especially with a yarn needle that’s not quite so sharp, although I tend to give my kids regular needles as they’re more effective in poking the popcorn and cranberry.
  • Miniature Wreaths – these are little squares of fabric (that don’t fray) strung on a strong thread (like embroidery floss or fishing line) and then tied together to make a circle.  We have scrap fleece so we use that, but felt or wool (felted or boiled) would also work well.  I made these with the kids originally for window decorating, but they have since grabbed them for the tree.

We don’t have our tree yet this year, but just yesterday afternoon, and I swear I didn’t stage this, my boys spontaneously started making Christmas decorations.  We had driven home from a lesson in the dark, during which they excitedly pointed out every house that had holiday lights and decorations, and this must have spurred to them to their own creations.  They ended up making wreaths on their own from construction paper – I couldn’t participate because I had to make dinner and take care of the (sick) baby.  But I watched them fold, cut, colour, and tape these to our front window, working cooperatively the entire time.

I know these decorations from the outside may not look like much, but I love that my boys feel that they have the capacity and wherewithal to make Christmas treasures with their own hands, which of course they do.  I hope that our annual makings for the Christmas tree foster this.  Our tree will display our things, including a few gifted ornaments and artwork that they boys deem appropriate, and this works for us.

Spinning Art with Boys

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For Christmas, my husband got me a salad spinner.  Yep, he did.

Anyway.  I’ve never had a salad spinner myself, because I don’t like single-purpose kitchen tools if I can avoid it, especially one so bulky, and also because I’ve never felt the need for wicking water off my salad greens.  But hubby noticed I was enjoying salads more lately, and so he thought it might be nice.  He had also forgotten to take the price tag off, and the spinner proudly displayed $40.   It’s true that it was made of a special safe plastic and was collapsible, but wha…?.  I tactfully asked, and he agreed, and the spinner was returned.  (For the record, he then got me a pair of skates – yay!)

But it must have triggered a tucked-away memory of an art project, because several days later I was in a thrift store looking around, spotted a bunch of salad spinners, and remembererd their possibilities.  So I bought one ($2).  Not for salads, but for spin art!

My boys and I just tried it, an idea from the Artful Parent, which is a blog teeming with accessible art activities for young children.  Spin art is totally satisfying, almost mesmerizing work.  To make it, basically you put a circular piece of paper in a salad spinner, plop some paint on it, and spin away.

I had to post about it here for two reasons:

1.  You only need 3 things:  a salad spinner, paint (we used tempera paints), and paper.

2.  It’s a great art activity for boys, and mine (5 and 3) worked at it together, in harmony, for almost an hour.

Each of these reasons needs a little elaboration.  Reason #1 needs elaboration because, well, this isn’t exactly true.  Because of course you need a place to do the art, some smocks or clothing you don’t mind getting paint on (or just turn clothes inside out), and scissors to cut the paper into circles to fit the salad spinner.  But most of us have these things, so the project still counts as accessible! The most important thing to add to this point for the non-salad spinning types out there is that you need a container of some kind to put under the salad spinner or you will be flinging paint all over the room!  I hadn’t realized this at first, but thank heavens before we started painting, the boys were playing with the spinner with pompoms dipped in water (please don’t ask) and I saw the water everywhere.   I used a large circular cake pan as the paint catcher and all was well.

As for Reason #2, of course this activity will engage girls also.  But it’s especially nice for boys (and at 4Mothers, we have boys, boys, and more boys) because there’s a lot of action in making this art.  First, they can shake up the paint in the bottle (warning:  ensure the caps are on tight!) and shake like their lives depend on it, they will.  Then they can undo the cap and squirt the paint on themselves with just a little guidance to avoid pouring too much in.  They can return the lid to the spinner, and of course they get to spin away.  My 3 year old could do all of these steps comfortably, and the full participation was great for him.  Also, his older brother was able to cut circles out of the paper while he waited for his turn, and wrote his and his brother’s name on them.  Which was really helpful, because it is very hard after the first few to remember who made what.

And a couple of miscellaneous thoughts…  First, thicker paper works better.  We used both paper plates and regular paper, and the plates worked better, with less curling around the edges once the paint dried.  And second, I only had one salad spinner and was initially sorry I hadn’t picked up another one.  But as it turned out, I actually think it worked better that the two boys had to share.  The wait added a bit of anticipation but was short enough not to cause frustration, and they got to watch and enjoy each others’ work.

Neither of my sons is particularly interested in sitting quietly and drawing pictures, but I’m convinced they can enjoy making art all the same, and this action-packed art project hits the spot.  The room was full of excitement (“My turn! My turn!”), curiosity (peeking into the hole at the top of the salad spinner while spinning), and encouragement of each other (“Wow, that looks great!”).

That was pleasure enough for me, but as a final bonus, we are making a mobile out of the artwork for their infant brother.  I hope seeing their artwork floating above the diaper table gives them the same pleasure it gives me, and I’ll be asked to give that spinner another whirl.