The VBS placemat, napkin, napkin ring and spoon.

Here are the girls finished VBS crafts.
So nice to have this DONE!!

Two hundred kids and their crafts. 
So very glad to have that big CHECK mark next to that to do list!

Woven Watercolor Placemats, an age-appropriate craft for VBS

Age appropriate crafts for Vacation Bible School is a hard one. The gap of ages, from pre-kindergarten to sixth grade make creating a craft that engages all of the children in attendance tough.

In keeping with my desire to create a craft that is worthwhile, I had the children make placemats.  Now I realize that most will probably hit the trash sooner rather than later, but... I can say that the majority of the kids, no matter the age, learned something during this project.

First off, the kids painted two different papers. On one they painted "cool" colors while the other was "warm" colors.  I explained to them about thinking of the "warm" as the sun and the "cool" as the ocean.  Given that we are in Texas with 100+ degree heat, even the smallest children understood the concept.

Another teaching moment came quickly with the Lots of Color... Little Water hand motions.  I taught them about using a brush and loading the brush with paint, not water. And then we painted.  Some children painted quickly and some not so much...

I then let the pages dry for a day or so and then we cut on into strips and the other into the base.  Amazingly, there were many fifth graders that did not know how to weave!!

When we had the woven paper finished, we glued it to the construction paper and the children colored the edges.  Finally, we laminated all of the projects.

And here they are...the great thing about this project is the end result looks good and works, no matter the level of ability!

Next up? Napkin rings.

Beaded Utensils and VBS

A year or so ago I found a blog about an adopting mom selling beaded utensils to make money to help pay for the adoption.  I bought a couple. (Those picutured above are NOT hers... hers are MUCH better..) I'd post where to go buy some, but she's not selling them anymore.  However, if you would like to puchase a beaded utensil, give me a couple of months, but my girls and I are going to make some and send them to Orphan Wares, so you can help feed the African orphans and buy our pretties...) but I digress.

As I might have mentioned, I am heading up crafts for VBS.  I am determined that the kids will get to make something worthwhile and that we won't make trash crafts... you know, the kind you throw into the trash the moment you get home.

Yesterday, the kids watercolored a couple of papers and tomorrow they are going to weave them into placemats that I will laminate. Today we worked on the beaded utensil.  Let's just say that one session into the morning, I punted.  Remember, I teach high school art and my children at home are used to my craft instruction, so I didn't really think about a "typical" five year old and his ability, or lack of ability at putting beads on a wire...  So, some of the kids glued their beads to the spoon. We will make their glued spoon into a picture frame.

The biggest win of the morning?  Only 2 of the bead bowls were knocked over.  With two hundred kids using bowls with beads in them, I'd say that is a good day.

Can McDonald's Be a McDonald's without a Diaper Changing Station?

I thought I might tell you about our Colorado Family Trip starting at the very begining, but I know that you don't really want to know that we made our first stop of the more than 1000 mile drive at mile 30... or that on our third stop only 2 1/2 hours into the trip it was 114 degrees outside. However, I decided that there are some things moms just need to know.. so here is one very important thing.

The McDonald's in Childress, Texas does NOT have a playplace NOR do they have a diaper changing station ANYWHERE in the restaurant!

How can you be a McDonald's without a place to change a child's diaper?

I don't think you should be able to call yourself a true McDonald's if you don't have a place to change a child!

 

It's bad enough they didn't have a place for the kids to play.. but I had to change Kylie's diaper in the middle of the restaurant on a bench!

So, let that be my warning to all of you parents out there.  Just because the McDonald's has a nice billboard that says "Remodeled" and it looks all nice and pretty.. it doesn't mean it is a McDonalds....

No Pre-Packaged Crafts!!

VBS starts this morning.

I'm in charge of crafts, and nope, we are not using pre-packaged crafts.  I decided to do something useful, or at least worth doing.  I hate it when my kids bring home those pre-packaged crafts that I have to either find a place to put them or throw them away while no one is looking.

So, yes, it's more work, but I'm hopeful that the kids will enjoy making the crafts and that they might learn something too.

Pictures to follow.