Little Elephants: Kids Crafts and Fun Activities

Rake leaves, make mess, have fun

My kids have never had a lawn to rake before, and now do they ever! (and, yes, they did have a proper-sized rake to use, not just that little plastic one). This activity kept them busy for a good two hours and they had no idea they were working. They even bagged a good bit of it before tumbling back into the house for a restorative snack. The leaves that compost well will be wheel-barrowed to the back of the garden and dumped upon Mount Compost over the weekend.

Life is good!

A garden teepee

Shortly after we moved here, Maggie began collecting large branches from around the garden to construct a teepee. Mornings after windy nights start with an eager hunt for branches newly fallen from the huge tree that towers over our house. When friends come by for a visit throw rugs and huge blankets are dragged out to transform her structure into a convenient, and cozy, spot to hide away from pesky little brothers.

The kids picked up some morning glory and sweet pea seeds from the garden center yesterday ... I'm wondering if Maggie might like to use one or the other to turn her teepee into into a living tent when the weather grows warmer?

{hello and welcome to folks visiting from Bloesem Kids today, and thank you to Irene for the lovely words :-) }

Pine-cone creatures

Today Maggie and I spent a lovely (quiet) time making creatures out of pine-cones and random bits found outside. This is a project we do every once in a while, and first read about in Nature's Art Box, a wonderful book Tomas and I found on Amazon a several years back. I wish we'd taken pictures of our past creations, as there have been some wonderful ones -- birds, crocodiles, hedge-hogs, and reindeer.

All you need is a dinner/craft table strewn with bits and pieces dropped from trees, and some glue -- we opt for the hot glue guns, though they do require a bit more adult supervision than our typical projects.

This has got to be one of the most satisfying art projects out there.

Flower prints

The kids' school hosted its annual Harvest Festival this past weekend. One of my favorite crafts was a repeat from last year, but they did it one better: In the previous incarnation the kids hammered flowers onto scraps of cloth and it wasn't really clear what you would do with it. This year the organizers gave the kids plain white scarves to decorate.

Very simply, they had the children pick out colorful flowers which were then laid out on half the cloth. The fabric was then folded in half and the kids handed a hammer to thwack the dyes in to the scarves. The result is lovely, eh? To set the dyes, all you need to do is toss your finished piece in the dryer. Easy peasy.

Finding art by the ocean

One of my favorite things about visiting the seaside is discovering the beautiful results of children's hard work and creativity. It reminds me of my own childhood trips to the ocean where I would spend hours building castles, mazes and tunnels. It also brings to mind my own children's labors of love.

Here are a few beauties we happened upon today, I love that each of the makers used feathers either as highlights or as the main point of interest.

Mixed media in the garden

I've been doing my best to get better about bringing along the kids' camera when we go on our outings. The only problem we tend to have is that the olders almost always want to take pictures at the same time. This leads to whining, arguments, and general unpleasantness that this mommy wants to keep to a minimum. The other day I decided to be smart about it for once and I had them each bring along a sketch pad and pencil, but I didn't tell them why.

We then headed for the community gardens where I gave them strict instructions (I even put on my serious face so they knew it was no joke):

1. They would take turns with the camera and could only take ten pictures per turn. Any shots over quota would be deleted. This ensured that they were extra conscious of what they snapped. [Full disclosure: I never deleted any, but no one noticed]
2. When choosing objects to capture they were to take light, shadow and color into consideration. I figure we can go into composition another time.
3. While the one was clicking away, the other was to pick something in the garden that they either had, or planned to photograph, and draw it in their sketch book.

When we got home we transfered the photos to the laptop and I had the kids compare their sketches to the photograph. If they wanted to they could then color their drawings in. There were no rules for the coloring.

These are Maggie's photo and colored sketch:

Gone fishing

This is how the kids have entertained themselves All Morning (& it's still gong strong!). Bjørn crafted this makeshift rod and reel out of sticks and kitchen string.

One kid hangs the pole over the balcony and calls for the little fishies to come for their morning snack of pretend worms. The other child runs around like a crazy person, scavenging for little bits to hook on.

Once the prize has been securely attached they tug on the string so the fisher knows they've caught something.

Glorious fun! (over, and over, and over again)

First swim lessons

Maggie and Bjørn have been splashing about in the water like little dolphins since they were little, but they've never had formal swim lessons. Until today!

I was chatting with one of the other moms pool-side last week when she mentioned how much her 12 year old daughter was enjoying junior life-guarding. Turns out she especially liked working with younger kids. I asked if she thought her daughter would be interested in teaching M&B, and the rest as they say, is history.

My young neighbor did such an amazing job with them. She came prepared with laminated lesson plans and gave them each a full half hour of dedicated one-on-one time. Each lesson was peppered with wonderfully sweet exclamations of encouragement and praise. At the end she sent them off with specific instructions of what she expected them to practice between lessons.

This is one spur-of-the-moment idea I've had that I am especially happy with! I know the kids can't wait for their next classes :-)

Off to chase water and shadows

When we lived in Brooklyn after college, we'd joke about how soft all our friends who'd moved out West had gotten. They wore sweaters at the first crisp breeze and wilted in the heat of a City's summer day. Since moving out to the Bay Area eight eyars ago, it's happened to us as well. Yesterday was hot, muggy and terribly overcast. The way I reacted you would have thought it was the start of a massive heatwave. I even started patrolling for ants (don't get me started!).

This morning we have a blissfully cool breeze billowing through, and I can tell already that it'll be a gorgeous day. Perfect for a visit to a park with sprinklers where we can chase water-drops and our shadows.

Sand and leaves

Our local Art Center hosts Family Days a couple times a year. After eight years in the neighborhood we finally made it to one this weekend, and I'm so glad we did! Kicking myself that we've never been before, too...

One of the activities was to draw with glue and then cover the glue with colored sands. If the kids wanted to they could also decorate with leaves & bits found in the Center's gardens.

Maggie made a tree and painstakingly added small leaves one-by one to the branches.

Bjørn on the other hand, made a psychedelic spiral tree in rainbow colors.

The next time we head out to the beach I'm thinking this will be a fun project to do with shells, seaweed, and whatever little bits we find along the shore to make a sea-side keepsake.