KIDS' MATTERS

Last Minute Valentines

Both girls had been making Valentines for various people all week.  They were so excited about Valentines day. 

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I decided to make cookies.  Gingerbread hearts dipped in chocolate and Chocolate hearts decorated in pink, white and blue icing.  Kinsey loves blue.  Haylee loves pink.  I wanted white. 

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We also dipped chocolate hearts in chocolate. 

Oh my, yummy. 

In the excitement, Haylee wanted to have a special Valentine dinner and talked her mom into making homemade pizza and asked me and Grampa to join them.  Meanwhile Kinsey popped in to say how excited she was about pizza.  And I asked if she'd made her sister a Valentine.  She hung her head and mumbled, "No."

"Do you want to make her one?"  She looked up.

"I don't know what to make."  I took her in my bathroom/craft counter and we rummaged through various boxes of ribbons, burlap, flowers and buttons.  "Burlap!  Haylee likes burlap!"  Within minutes we were constructing a wall hanging of a strip of burlap trimmed in fuschia grosgrain ribbon, and a diamond-tipped fabric rose.  We cut a heart out of a pink envelope I'd received from Grampa that morning, and Kinsey wrote I love you on it.  We found some googely eyes and glued them beneath the heart and made a smile with a piece of the paper left over from the heart.  Kinsey was so excited she had to deliver it to her sister right away.

Within five minutes Haylee came through my back door.

"Grama, I don't have anything for Kinsey."  Back to the bathroom/craftroom.  Haylee decided she wanted blue, because Kinsey's favorite color is "blue".  I didn't have much in blue, but had some fabric turquoise ribbon left over from making bows for a wedding last Summer.

"I have a little bluebird."

  Haylee's creative mind went into first gear.  Out the door she went in search of a branch and a slice of wood (also leftover from the country wedding decorations last Summer).  Within a few minutes we were stripping a few leaves off an ivy arrangement in my bathroom to glue to the branch Haylee treked out to the woods to find. We clipped some daisies from my kitchen window arrangement and at Haylee's fatidious direction, I helped glue the pieces together.

I was amazed at how quickly we assembled a Japanese-style arrangement for Kinsey's bedroom shelf.  She was thrilled, and so was Haylee.  Maybe last minute Valentines are best.  It really doesn't matter.  But sisters need to love sisters and creating homemade Valentines is a great way of showing it.  Don't you think?

Mending Hearts

I can't believe it.  It's been over a year since I bothered to write anything on this blog.  And it's not because I haven't had a bevy of things I could have written.  In fact I have a cache of photos I could post and blather on about.  Wow. 

Where have I been?  Where has my mind been?  perhaps I've been consumed with myself and my less than noteworthy life.  However...

I come here today and what do I find in the drafts of this blog but a little post I'd started to write and, for one reason or the other, decided not to publish.  Therefore... here it is.  A quick thought about love and my granddaughter's close proximity to me:

February 2013:  Another thing I LOVE about having my daughter's house attached to my efficiency home-space: Haylee popped over this a.m. between reading and math lessons and asked, "Grama, could you fix my bear's heart?" everyone say awwwwwh...

Her bear's little stuffed heart had come loose on one side and was no longer attached to the bear's paw.  When I said, sure, she injected: "Now???"

I'd already reached for my needle and thread next to my recliner (yes I keep needle and thread next to me... you never know when you're gonna have a sewing emergency--especially with Haylee).  As I sewed the bear, she told me her brother's fiance, Hannah, gave her the beart for Valentine's Day last year (2012). Then she told me the candy that she gave her too. I inquired, "You remember that?"

"Yeah". Then she told me what others gave her. What I wouldn't give for an 8-year-old's memory.

When I finished attaching her heart, I noticed a small hole in the seam on the bear's back. So I said, "While I have the thread out, let's stitch up his back." I handed her bear to her and she hugged it like it was brand new. This is my calling. I am a grandma. And I love it.

Note... since this was first written, Hannah has married Haylee's brother. And we have such a lovely addition to our family.  Don't you think?

I need to get busy with this space. Journaling about the kiddos is so worth chronicling (is that how I spell that?  hmmmn).

Sidenote.  Just as I was adding this photo this very moment, Haylee popped in from next door (as if she was punctuating my thoughts...).  She wanted to know if I'd seen a Beanie Boo she's misplaced.  She was sad.  I know it will turn up.  I told her so.  She didn't seem to believe me.  But, in my heart, I knew.  That Beanie Boo will return to her life as surely as I returned to this blog and Haylee came into my living room and reminded me how very precious she is to me.  I kissed her on top of her head and she bounced out the door.  Lord, return Beanie to her.  Real soon.

SPACE FOR KIDS

YEAH!  what do ya do when you have NO CREATIVE SPACE or storage room?  where to begin?  Is is possible in a tiny little 562 square foot efficiency apartment to keep a space to play with my grandchildren and create without destroying the whole house (cause when ya have a teensey house-space, a paper-clip can look out of place).  Well, I plan on trying to get this act together.  But meanwhile, here is a blog that gives some ideas to get me...and possibly you, started.  Check out THE ARTFUL PARENT blog.  She is amazing.  Some of these ideas I plan to incorporate into my daughter's house next door.  Other parts, will grace my space somewhere.  My brain is working overtime at the moment.

Related articles

A SIMPLE GOSPEL: "The Light is where Jesus Is"

Preparing For Thanksgiving 2012

So my daughter had some errands to run, things to do yesterday and today.  And I got the girls.  So we decided to do crafts and prepare for Thanksgiving Dinner we are having on Friday.  Yes, Friday.  That is when my fireman grandson is off so that we can all be together.  The girls are so excited. 

On Monday we made napkin rings.  On Tuesday we made place cards.  Check them out below:

We made the napkin rings with three toilet paper rolls. I cut them in fours.  That gave us twelve.  Then I cut up strips of magazines to wrap around the rings to add some texture to the rings.  The girls had fun wrapping them.  Then they painted them.  After they painted them one solid color, they decorated them with designs.

These are the turkey place cards.  I cut up a couple of manila folders and used the fold. They dipped their thumbs in a paint-soaked sponge and imprinted the card for the head of the turkey.  Then I showed them how to draw the beak and eyes on the thumbprint.  They added feet to the circle. And yes...that is a hot pink and Kentucky blue turkey that Kinsey made... It's called "creativity".

For tail feathers, I cut out some circles with a stem on them. They colored them with markers and we stuck the tab inside the slits I had cut on the top of the fold on the card.  They stuck the stem part of the tail-feather section into the slit and taped them to the inside of the card to hold them in place.  And tah-dah!  A turkey place card. They each decided which family member they would make a card for and began printing their names on the back of the turkey's body.

GRANDMA'S SUPPORTING ROLE

  Life is a buzz, a twitter, a face in a book.  We don't measure time in seconds anymore, we measure it in realtime, DSL connection "load-time", "dial-up", and more.  The thing is, with all the computer game frenzy, the Nintendos, Leapsters, and Barbie Doll computers, the less time children spend on drawing, coloring, writing and developing their creative imagination.  What's a parent to do?  The world is changing.

So here we are.  Grandmas who are privileged to stay at home.  We have the undeniable opportunity to do what the world does not do for our grandchildren.  Create magical moments!  We can support the world of technology and gadgetry, by undergirding the fundamentals of life.  But will we?

In an article by award-winning Children's author, Dixie Phillips, a pastor's wife in Iowa, and have served the Gospel Lighthouse Church, in Floyd, Iowa, for 29 years.  Dixie gives a few pointers on keeping "writing" alive with children that were so basic for we grandma's who love to instill old fashion values, and appreciation for yesteryears.  Oddly, these are some of the things my grandchildren and I do right now.  I feel so special (can you see my head growing?).  As well as developing small-motor skills, the ideas are those which any of us can do.  Here a few she offered with a bit of my embellishments and a couple of my own ideas. 

Give your grandies flip-top notepads and pretend they are waiters/waitresses.  (My granddaughters love this game.  We had many a peanut buttter sandwich delivered to us with a glass of apple juice.) 

Give them a set of thank-you notes so they can write thank-yous for gifts (or as Dixie suggested--"o local officials who are doing something for the community).  Teach them how to address the envelope.  Let them take it to the mailbox.  (Send them notes in the mail.  They love to get mail.)

Let them add their favorite foods to your grocery list.  (To develop better reading skills, let them cross off the items on the list.)  By the way...you don't have to go to the grocery to do this.  You can let the grocery store be your cupboards, and let them go shopping there and take a few things back into a play area.  My granddaughters do this all the time.

Let them write a letter to the editor of a local paper.  Often these letters are published and give children an opportunity to see their words in print.  This could be the moment they decide they are contributors in society.

Let them have a party for a couple of friends.  Have them design their own invitations and send them in the mail.  If you're not up to partying, then let them invite their cousins to a movie.

Help them make a calendar of events.  Then you can have them post what they did on the calendar.  If they fill their calendar with things they do each day, then you can reward them with a dime a day.  It's a great way to motivate writing, but also to record memories.

Help them make a card for another family member who lives far away (or across town) and send it to them.  Let them take notes in worship and then later send a thank you to the preacher for teaching them about God.

How about you?  Got any innovative ideas you can come up with to help teach your children to use their writing skills?  Maybe you're like me.  I was inspired to write this post today when I happened across Dixie's website. Peruse my archives and see if you find anything that lights up that bulb in your life.

Creating NEW LIFE Craft

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

POCKET HEARTS FILLED WITH....

Well, actually...you can fill those pockets with lovenotes, scripture, or little task-promises for mommy on Mother's Day.  So many things could go in your heart pockets.

I am signed up for Tony Kummer's newsletter with his MINISTRY TO CHILDREN blogsite.  Over a year ago I watched a video he linked to showing how to make a Heart-pocket for a Sunday School project.  Well, I don't have a children's Sunday School class to teach.  But I have two very eager project-loving granddaughters who flat-out love it when I sit and make something--anything--with them.  So....when one winter evening our electricity went out due to an ice-storm, I ended up spending Thursday with the girls.  They didn't have electricity either.  But, they did have a fireplace to keep us toasty warm.  The next day, while their mother did office-work for her hubby's construction business (and later ran errands), Haylee, Kinsey and I made heart-pockets.  They turned out really cute and we had a blast making them.  We did a few extra things with ours that the video didn't show, but to see a great step-by-step instructional presentation, just go HERE.   MORE PHOTOS OF OUR CREATIONS BELOW:

 

Kinsey learns to punch holes.  We used the cutouts to decorate her pocket.  Kinsey pats her hearts on hearts to make them stick good with the glue stick she just used.

We stuck magnetic strip to the back of the heart pockets and put them on the fridge.  Now, we will write Bible verses on hearts and stick them inside the pockets.

SUCH FUN when you don't have electricity.  Don't forget to check out Tony's site above.

ANOTHER PROJECT YOU MIGHT LIKE:

MOTHER'S DAY MAGNETS. 

MOMMY MAGNETS 4 Mother's Day in 4 Easy Steps

So I had the girls over and we made "mommy" magnets.  Below are photos of materials needed and step by step assembly by none other than Miss Haylee and Miss Kinsey.  They were very diligent in following directions and it was one of the simplest crafts I ever put together for them.

I used plastic bottle caps.  Stuck a round magnet on the back.  Filled the cap with Elmer's glue.  Then added the inside decorations.  *DRIED* rice, beans, split peas.

I had all the items laid out on the table before I brought in the girls.  Then I sat down in front of them and guided them through each step.  Have a damp washcloth handy to wipe those sticky fingers.

STEP 1) Remove the paper sticker off the self-stick magnet.

STEP 2) Push the sticky side of magnet onto the topside (outer side) of the bottle cap.

"Haylee; did you know that God makes beans, and peas and rice?"  (A time to teach about God's provision.)

STEP 3) Squeeze Elmer's glue into the center of the inside of the bottle cap about half-full.

 
STEP 4) Generously drop your beans, rice, and peas into the cap and press down.  Haylee got creative and added a few grains of rice to her beans and peas.  I always let them individualize their creations.  Whatever they choose to do within the bounds of the tiny space in front of them, I say "Go for it!"

"Why beans and rice, Grama?"

"Because we're making magnets for the kitchen.  And Mommy cooks with beans, and rice and peas."

"That's a good idea!"  Whew!  I'm sure glad it was a good idea.  If not, Haylee might have taken her magnets apart and began sticking in fresh daisies.

Hope you enjoy this little craft.  It's great for Sunday School craft.  It took all of 10 minutes for us to put these together.  These are great for Mother's Day or even Mommy's birthday.  Actually, they're good for anyone's day as a cute gift for Christmas.  Use the imagination and let your heart go crazy for others.

One bit of advice:  Have a little plastic plate beneath the space where they actually assemble their magnets.  I usually do this.  Duh, didn't this time and you can see the clean-up I had all over the table and onto the floor.  Not bad, just had to sweep.  But could be avoided with plates or trays under their bottle caps.  selahV   

[CLICK ON ANY PHOTO FOR AN ENLARGEMENT]

[Check out the rest of my KIDS' MATTERS Blog for Insights and Hindsights and a few other ideas.]

GOD IS A GENIUS (Worth Showing Kids)

BLOWING BUBBLES, The Wonder of it All

Simple pleasures.  What in the world is it about blowing bubbles that tickles our souls?  I don't comprehend the magic in the experience; but nevertheless, it exists.

Slowly, gently, easy.  Creating the perfect bubble is an art form.  It takes patience, self-control.  And the end product is so very worth the time.

  Kinsey can't hide behind her bubble.  She's so proud.  She blew it up into the air then caught it on her bubble wand.  "Look, Grama!  Look at mine!"  How precious is the joy and innocence of a child.  What fun it is to create such circles--such rainbows.  God bless these moments of sheer pleasure.  Create in them the everlasting joy that keeps them ever drawing closer to Your splendor and hope.  Oh, the wonder of it all.