It’s summer, which means kids are home and work hours shift. (At least, that’s what it means for us, when our boys span the ages of 2-8, and I work both in church ministry and as Parents Day Out director.)
My job is on-site during the school year, but is partially remote in summer and on breaks. This helps a lot with adjusting for childcare needs when schools and PDO are out of session. I’m thankful. And it’s still hard. This is one of those moments when two things can be true at once.
We’re trying our best to achieve both a relaxed summer and still maintain some semblance of a routine so that our kids aren’t thrown so far out of whack when the school year starts back in August.
One part of the routine we’re working to maintain is “table-time.” For our 8-year-old, that looks like a math sheet reviewing some of last year’s skills each morning, a daily creative project (coloring, painting, sketching, Legos, etc), and piano practice at least once a day. For our 2 and 3 year olds, that looks like a skills-based developmental activity (think shape sorting, color sorting, chunky puzzles) and a worksheet each day (“worksheet” is a loose term here, referencing a dot marker sheet, line tracing sheet, or coloring page).
It’s honestly a little bit of a struggle. I can admit it: we’re making it, but it’s not grumbling-free – for the kiddos or for us as parents.
Today, though, we got line-tracing pages and math worksheets done a little quicker than the rest of the week, so I decided to add in a more fun-focused craft for the day, too.
We made simple handprint flowers!
Even my middle child, who resists the feel of paint often, was excited about this today and participated in many of the steps. (It could be because I showed him we’d use the stapler and he’d been wondering what that red thing did for a while.)
You’ve seen this on Pinterest before and it’s not a new idea by any stretch. But in case it’d gotten lost in the recesses of your mind, I wanted to share our morning craft with you.
We used a green marker, black marker, thick popsicle stick, purple construction paper, pink paint and a brush, scissors and a stapler.
I got the boys to color their popsicle sticks with a green marker. The younger two scribbled with their green markers, and I went over it to color it more completely.
Then I painted their left hands pink and pressed a print to the purple construction paper. (If you have a sensory-sensitive kiddo, like one of mine, the trick is cleaning their hand immediately after. That has helped us so very much! Also, me doing a sample first and showing the boys each step seems to help my middle know what to expect.)
Once each pink print was mostly dry, I cut them out – I did this part because scissor control is not a highly accomplished skill yet. When I cut them out, I tried to think about the top of a cartoon tulip – sort of pointed but rounded, if that makes sense, and that’s what I wanted their fingers to resemble (vaguely).
I added their names to the center of the handprint flower, and marked the month and year on the back of each popsicle stick.
Then they got to use the stapler with Mommy! We stapled the stem to the flower with the flower on front and the green facing forward.
We could have glued, probably, but I know my kids and they wanted to carry them around to show Da-Da, and glue would have zero chance to dry in our house. Plus, they have been checking out the stapler when I work remote. So the stapler it was!
These really did turn out super cute, and they were very proud of their flowers. Teddy in particular – even though he usually resists artwork and work at the table – was very cute, waving his flower and mine up and down the hall, saying “Ted-Ted’s! Mommy’s!” over and over.
If you’re looking for an easy, classic summer craft, maybe this will job your memory and inspire you at your kitchen table.
Happy summer crafting, y’all!
Kate with a Twang 