Love Bugs

We're getting closer to Valentine's Day, which is by far my favorite crafting holiday and I love sharing the fun with the boys. Big Brother is already getting excited by remembering some of last year's projects. We have several fun crafts planned for the next few weeks. We kicked off this year's Valentine's Day crafting with these egg carton "Love Bugs."

Arctic Sticky Collage

A few weeks ago we had a lot of fun with our Used Wrapping Paper Sticky Collage which we spontaneously put together. When a family member gave us a box of old National Geographic magazines I thought it would be fun to try a "themed" collage. As several of the magazines had polar animals, it seemed like it would be a good idea to try an arctic theme.

"Cold" Sparkle Snow Dough

A few weeks ago we made Sparkle Snow Dough which proved to be a lot of fun. Big Brother's only complaint was that it didn't seem "cold" like real snow. This lead to some searching on the internet and Pinterest which helped us to this recipe for Erupting Snow. Although there seemed to be similar recipes out there, this was a great fit. We're simply calling it "Cold Sparkle Snow Dough" here.

The ingredients are simple: shaving cream, glitter, and baking soda. 

Creating Our Own Sibling Book

This month's Virtual Book Club for Kids author is Laura Numeroff, and although we love her well known books like If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, I knew this was the perfect opportunity to put together a project I've had in mind for a while.

In the fall when Big Brother started to show some sibling jealousy, I ordered a copy of What Brothers Do Best. We already had What Mommies Do Best/What Daddies Do Best in board book, but this quickly became a new favorite. We used it to talk a lot about ways their relationship was special and different from other relationships he had. We talked a lot about the things they already enjoyed together and things they could do together some day.

But, I knew Big Brother would like to take the book a little further, so we created our own "brother" book.

Double Chocolate Valentine's Popcorn

Yesterday (January 19) was National Popcorn Day, which inspired Big Brother and I to experiment with a new popcorn recipe ourselves. In order to get ready for Valentine's Day, we decided to try out a new recipe we might want to give some of our own sweet valentines.

We've made white chocolate popcorn before, but decided this time to add in a semi-sweet chocolate element too. 

A Boy, Some Stickers, and A Box

The other day I was all set to explore a new project; using our window snowflakes, colored construction paper, and white crayons to create snowflake rubbings.

Except, Big Brother was not at all interested in the materials I laid out, even after I experimented myself.

He was too busy working on his box.

Last Saturday, as my husband was gathering the recycling Big Brother claimed a medium sized packaging box which had arrived over the holidays. On his own he began turning his box into a "rocket ship." He raided his art bin, collecting a box of markers and a bag of stickers.

He then proceeded to work, and work, and play, and work on his box. The design, the art work, the concept was all his own. He was completely engaged for large chunks of time. At the time of these photos he had invested over three hours of time into the box between creating and play over a three day period. And he was still going!

Moments like these serve as a good reminder to me that sometimes the best projects aren't planned. And often the best projects are led by a child's interest. Giving Big Brother the room to chose whatever materials interested him, and to create in whatever way he wanted, meant he was incredibly engaged with his project. It has also mattered to him that the box has been allowed to hang around the house much of the week, moving from room to room, with more and more additions. Its continued presence gives the project a sense of value to its creator. 

And it will continue to hang around, until Big Brother loses interest and is ready to move on. Until then, we can expect to see this boy in his box several more times.

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