They didn't want to watch cartoons.
They didn't want to play with playdoh.
They didn't want to read books.
Puzzles, blocks, dolls...all, "boring".
Haylee suggested we make a craft.
Crafting is a favorite thing to do at grama's. Unfortunately for me, my brain was empty. So I went to a craft idea website and showed Haylee some things we could do. She nixed the catepillar made of a separated egg-carton. I turned her attention to lunch as I searched for something else I could make with items I had around the house. An interesting butterfly wand, made of a popsicle stick, pipecleaner and a coffee filter, flitted before my eyes. However, it called for "adult supervised hot-gluing". I wasn't in the mood for glue-guns. So, I waddled out to the kitchen to see what I had in my craft cupboard.
On the kitchen counter lay some push-pin style clothes pins the girls had played with the day before. My brain raced into overdrive. "Perfect." I took out some coffee filters, folded one in half and pushed it between the slots with the folded edge first, then flayed edges to follow. Then I took another filter, folded it and pushed it onto the clothespin with the folded edge going in first. This created the sweetest little base for our butterfly. I cut a pipe-cleaner and twisted it around the neck of the pin, then folded the tips of the pipecleaner to look like antenna nobs. "Wella!" A white butterfly.
I showed it to Kinsey and Haylee. Haylee loved it--with one exception. She wanted to color the coffee filter with markers and spray it with water to create another effect. I'm all for creativity, so I said, "Sure, have at it." I figured the longer she worked on her wings, the happier she'd be making the craft. I also utitlized that time to begin writing this post. (If you're doing this craft with a child with short attention span, simply omit the marker coloring and make it a white butterfly).
There's just something about creating stuff. I use the opportunity to ask how they "feel" when they make something. They always say, "It feels gooooood." So then I ask them how they think God feels when He created the whole wide world with all the butterflies, and flowers, and sky, and sun, and stars, and moon. They get all excited and say, "He musta felt reeeeally good."
I think they're right.
To accomplish within a given time-frame, such as with school children or Sunday School classes, you can use colored tissue paper cut in circles. Or, make the circles one day (let them sit in their cocoons), and finish the project on another day. This gives you a great opportunity to explain the process of metamorphosis. You could put their clothespin, colored coffee filters, and the antenna inside a paper bag with their names on it. The next day (or following Sunday), you could take them out of their cocoons and finish creating new life.
OPTIONAL IDEAS:
Hook a wire ornament hanger to the neck and hang it on their bedroom curtains.
Attach string and hang from ceiling fan to make a mobile. Or just make a mobile with an entire classes' collection of butterflies.
Or use pushpins and push your creations into the ceiling. Add to the art collage as you make other things with wings that God created to fly.
Attach to stiff wire and stick in a potted plant as if the butterfly is in search of nectar.
Take pictures of children making their butterflies and then holding their finished creations. Then have the older child write a story to go along with the photos and put it in a life-journal book. Include scripture passage with it. "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:The old has gone, the new is here!" 2 Corinthians 5:17
They'll really appreciate the memory book when they're grown and working with their children and grandchildren. Ah yes, my friends. There is a method to this blogging Grama's madness. Someday my grandchildren will have these memories to look back on for their children. Neat legacy building, don't you think?
Stay tuned to see what we make next at Grama's House of Creative Crafts. I've got a great idea blowing in the wind for next time. Leave a comment and I'll be sure and send you the link when I put it up.
MORE CRAFT FUN WE'VE DONE:
MOMMY MAGNETS
HEART POCKETS
FOR SUPER IDEAS AND CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVES WITH CHILDREN VISIT:
Tony Kummer's MINISTRY to CHILDREN WEBSITE
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