kiddo kraft of the month - SEPTEMBER

i have been avoiding pinterest, because i know how much time i could spend on it as i dive deeper into the rabbit hole. i was invited a long while ago, but didn't understand how to work in it, so i deactivated my account without creating one pin.

and recently...i re-activated my account, and have been lost and am spending (or wasting) lots of time researching everything and seeing all the cool ideas that everybody in the planet has on their 20 billion blogs. not to mention, my nearly 80-year-old grandy has a pinterest account...and when she talks about all the things she's found on pinterest, it makes me feel totally last century. she also now has an ipad - which makes me even more behind the times. go Grandy. my kids are envious.

whew - now that that's out there...

being on pinterest makes you want to be creative! so i've been doing stuff like crazy for the kids.

so, i can't help but post 2 of the things that i've made as a result of my inspiration.

the first kiddo craft project was inspired by my 4-year-old and a Crocs box. last week she told me she needed a rectangular box. i brought her one...not a rectangle. (way to go on the shape knowledge, ladybug). she made me try again. smart-aleck. so i found her another one. i recently bought some crocs on sale for her (thanks to all those new blogs i'm following on facebook because of all the pinterest rabbit hole excursions), so i gave her one of those shoe boxes (yes, this time it was a rectangle). she proceeded to fill her jewelry box with goodies (thanks, aunt anne).

and, being my child, one of her first questions is: can we decorate it?!

and, being me, i respond: absolutely!

so, the kiddo kraft of the month is: shoe box jewelry boxes (catchy, right?)

i know this is a lame craft, but it has brought so much delight to her. i could have just given her some markers and sequins or something awful to glue all over it, but NO, i decided to play with mama's big toys! i pulled out some of my craft paper (cause i only have a 1.5 feet-tall stack of it...), my paper cutter, and my big sticker maker (thanks Grandy, yes, i'm using it) - cause i don't like glue as much as sticker paper!

she picked out her paper (i had to cut her off at 5 designs). i measured it very NOT precisely by making creases on it after laying it on the box sides. she helped me cut it with my paper cutter (they think it's fun...heehee). and i (gasp) hand-cut the letters of her name. then we ran all the pieces through my big 'ol sticker maker - oh yeah! i know it's a bit wasteful for such big pieces of paper...but I LIKE IT! :)

i was a little anal and put the pieces on the box so they'd actually fit on there, but leila helped me peel them off the paper, i did let her put her name on top...which all fit - whew!

wha-la! a BOX! lol. scratch that - a PRETTY box. it quickly changed from a jewelry box to a medicine box and she went to doctor her dolphin. even a vet can have a cute med-kit. ;)

of course, macy saw what we were doing and just had to have one of her own. so, we repeated and she got to make one too.

THEN - i got the following idea off pinterest, but i modified it. i can't find the link, because it was easy to remember. we're working on lower and upper letter recognition in our mommy school time. leila's got the uppers down, but not all the lowers. so, i created a game for her to remember.

the second kiddo kraft of the month is - magnetic alphabet matching game

i gave leila the basket of upper scrabble letters (which she loved), and asked her to see if she could place them on top of their corresponding lower letter. and she did. we're going to practice these a lot! and as she progresses, i think i'll up the game with a timer to see how fast she can do it!

i see many other fun games with these letters, too! we could play bingo with them and she has to match the letter i call out onto her board. or, when she begins writing words, she can put them together on her board - without worry about making mistakes while writing! etc. etc. i'm sure i can come up with more (and will), because now i've got alphabet scrabble letter magnets! i think i'm also going to make a math game out of it because there are numbers on each of the letter tiles - bonus! and, it's a fun lesson on magnets and why they repel (by the way - i made sure that i put them on the tiles the same way so that they would stack up together)!

so, that's that! oh man, my mind is racing with possibilities!

have fun!