It has, however, given me lots of ideas for Christmas decorating that are doable for moms with small kids. When I arrived on Sunday evening we got in the Christmas mood by watching The Polar Express. The youngest two had never seen the movie and it's so magical watching their earnest faces as they declare they would get on the train!
The craft we made was simple, not too time consuming and educational. I had cut out pennants from a leftover piece of painters cloth. The kids chose Merry Christmas as the words they wanted to display. I had alphabet stencils from the dollar store and magic markers. The kids had to count how many letters we needed and find the stencil letters to spell the words. This was a pretty big accomplishment for grades SK to four. Christmas is a tough word!
Then they taped the stencils on the pennants and coloured them in with the magic marker. ~
Don't I have this wonderfully under control? No matter how many times they say, "Grandma is this - can I - I need - he took my, etc.", I am completely calm and relaxed! They jiggle and jump and squeeze in closely to watch me hot glue gun the pennants to the hay binder twine we brought in from the barn. We proudly show my daughter the first word and can't understand her confusion until I turn it around. ~
YRREM? Okay, so it's a little harder to concentrate when you are working with very young children!
I reheat the glue to melt it and start again. More jiggling, jumping and squeezing and we have a banner to hang in the sun porch to greet Daddy when he gets home from his conference in a few days. He says it is the best Christmas decoration they have and the kids were thrilled!
I'm not even going to apologize for the photography! Between meals, lunches, laundry, homework, baths, racing for school buses, doctor appointments and barn work, it's a miracle I picked up a camera at all!
Have a simply wonderful day!
I think you should be commended as "Grandma of the Year". Congrats for surviving, let alone overseeing such a wonderful craft experience for the little ones. (Marilyn Gilmore)
ReplyDeleteMaureen...you are the most awesome-est Gramma ever! Your grandchildren are so lucky to have such a crafty gramma too! Love the whole thing!
ReplyDeletexo
It's the moms out there who juggle this stuff every day that are the really awesome ones! I'll take your kind praise anyway though.
ReplyDeleteThe banner turned out great. I'm sure it will be cherished for years to come. Glad you made it back home where you can rest (write blog, clean house, decorate for the season, prepare crafts for next farm visit, look after your own pets - etc. etc.)
ReplyDeleteGlad to have you home for a little while.
Lynn