
I've decided that I want my children to be more service oriented. Wow. That sounds like fun. You can bet my kids were thrilled when I told them.
I figured one thing we could do is make crafts for the
Festival of Trees. (also
here.) For those of you who don't know, the Festival of Trees is awesome and all the proceeds go to benefit Primary Children's Hospital. And everything there is donated--all the crafts and trees that they sell, the people that work there, the guys who drive the trucks to deliver the trees--yup, all donated. Plus, when I was younger one of those close peoples-I-knew stayed there for several days when (s)he found out (s)he had diabetes. (I'm being vague so I don't get accused of disclosing confidential medical history.) So anyway, good cause and all.
I even made my poor children watch a few clips off the internet about sick children in hospitals. I found a few commercials--not from Primary Children's, but that's okay. And then we talked about those less fortunate than ourselves and how we can help them.
And that used up my good mommy quotient for the month so it was TV shows from then on out.
Anyway, I figured we could do some simple crafts. I found some wood beads that had large holes in them and some of that fancy beading-type string. The necklace above used some fake hemp, I think. My kindergartner has been learning about patterns in school--which he loves doing--so this was right up his alley. I told him to pick a pattern and stick the beads on. Then I helped him with the middle bead and he reversed the pattern back the other way. I helped glue on the clasps and voila! (sorry, too lazy to figure out how to get that slashy thing on the a) a pretty good looking wood necklace, if I do say so myself. Yup, that necklace pictured is the one my kindergartner made. I'm pretty proud, actually. (And just for the record, he decided to give that one to his teacher, which I also figured was a worthy pursuit. We'll make some more for the festival.)
For my four-year old, I got some plastic beads (again, with large holes) and some of that stretchy plastic string stuff. I just let him put the beads on in any pattern he likes and he made a stretchy bracelet, intended for a little girl. I figure we'll stick several of the bracelets together and that should be good. I know I've seen random-patterned beaded bracelets in the store before. Right? Right?
Here is one of my handsome men beading his bracelet.
And here is my other handsome man proudly displaying his creation. My two-year old actually beaded a little bit, and if I had been there to help her, it probably wouldn't have fallen off the string and she too might have had a bracelet to show. That's the problem with trying to do things with three kids and only one me. I'm a few hands short.
And if you want to do this craft without sending it to The Festival of Trees, I suppose you could do that. (But just think of all the warm-fuzzies you'll be missing out on.)
This would also make a good present for Grandma. (Hey Grandma--would you like to specify your design before we make you these for Mother's Day?)