Kids Crafts: Hand-print Butterfly

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

It might require a bit of a stretch of the imagination... but, this is indeed a butterfly of sorts, albeit a whimsical one :)

Whenever we are in the mood and feel inspired, Ana and I make a few cards together. We do quite a few hand-print themes as Ana loves it for some reason.

And, once the paints are ready and her hands are loaded, in the spirit of conservation, believing that it is best to get as many impressions as possible without wasting the paints, I usually end up with multiple cards of the same theme from that session.

Of course, I end up customizing/finishing each card a bit differently just for fun. Like, I have about 4 hand-print peacock cards, about 4 of these hand-print butterfly cards, (and other hand-print themes that I should get around to posting someday), that look slightly different from each other so I am well-stocked to use it for various occasions :)

Items used: acrylic paints, glitter(optional), black marker, card stock paper, and of course, enthusiastic baby hands

I load the wee hands with paints of my choice sometimes; but, at times, I allow myself to be guided by the whims of the wee one and let her mess with the colors she likes.

It barely takes a minute to make the actual hand-print, but, boy does Ana love the preparation surrounding it. She sits at the table the minute I place the first required item; then, as I hunt and gather the other items on the table she blurts out their names and what she'd like to do with them. And, finally, when I sit down, armed with all the tools, including a bowl of water and a towel for wiping our hands between impressions, she is bursting with anticipation!

Once the hand-prints are fairly dry, i just sketch the required body parts to suggest the creature we intended to present through the hand-print.

Ana was particular about giving this card pictured here to D for Valentine's Day! Of course, Amma (c'est moi) can have one too, but, what's the point? Amma knows to make her own. Poor Appa can't make one for himself, so, Ana just lavishes her crafts on him whenever she can!

Once I planted the idea, she made a few valentine heart cards to give away to her friends as well... just sponge-painted card stock ones that I cut into heart-shapes.

Kids Crafts: Hand-print Peacock

Looks like a turkey wearing a peacock costume, does it?

Well, thankfully D didn't think so :)

It was his birthday last week and since we were all sick we didn't do anything special to celebrate the occasion. Well, Ana and I made a card each for D, despite Ana's cough and fever. That sure seems "special" to me.

Items used: Crayola tempera paints - blue, green, red and yellow; card stock paper, some glitter (optional), black gel pen, and, oh, a wee little hand or two



She had saved her Elmo party hat from Max's birthday at daycare and made D wear it. She suggested that D should have a cupcake with a candle on it that he should blow out as we sing!

How could I refuse?

So, I did make a batch of my bran mini muffins as we thankfully had the ingredients handy at home, with a few substitutions...

Ana was such a trooper. When I told her we could make a card for Appa's Birthday, and that we could make a hand-print peacock she managed to sit with me patiently and finish the card despite her sickness!

And, she even sat with me till I finished painting a simple floral card I wanted to fill with my good wishes for D.

All in all, it wasn't a total washout...

Anyway, Ana and I have worked on a few hand-print projects so far and she hasn't quite mastered the art of pressing the paint-loaded hand down and lifting it up straight to leave a nice hand-print. No matter. It adds to the charm, I think...

Sounds like croup...

Fever that comes and goes? Check.
Congestion and difficulty breathing? Check.
Occasional vomiting of phlegm? Check.
Hacking, barking cough? Check.

---

Run the humidifier in her room? Check.
Watch closely to make sure she can breathe? Check.
Hug her as often as she would let me? Check.
Stay calm and pray that she recovers soon? Check.

Maisy Big, Maisy Small

[this post written for Saffron Tree]

Maisy Big, Maisy Small
by Lucy Cousins

Recommended Ages: 1-3 years

Maisy Big, Maisy Small is a 2007 publication concept book of opposites written and illustrated by Lucy Cousins.

Lucy Cousins introduced us to Maisy, the adorable little mouse, in 1990. Since then she has written a whopping number of Maisy books which have been translated into several languages with Maisy becoming Mimi in French, Mausi in German and Pina in Italian.

So far, I've been on the fence about Maisy books: I love the level of simplicity projected by Maisy, but, never really got into it with full gusto. However, to my surprise, I instantly liked Maisy Big, Maisy Small, I must admit.

Concept books are quite a useful tool for us parents to help our children explore their world and start defining it with an added level of granularity. By expanding their vocabulary with contrasting terms, this book of opposites helps them learn to describe their world with a little more clarity.

For example, Maisy Squiggly/Maisy Straight shows squiggly lines and straight lines as contrasts. From then on, a line is not just a line anymore - it is a wiggly/squiggly line or a straight line, thus adding an extra layer of definition.

Maisy's two-dimensional world is stripped to the bare essentials, with nothing extraneous to distract the visuals. Vibrant primary colors ("crayon-colors", as I found out they are called) fill the black outlines, making them almost cartoonish, thereby immediately appealing to a child's eye.

The visually stimulating art makes this a lively picture book: Maisy morphs herself to illustrate the opposites - she becomes tall and shoots out of the page and we see only her long legs, whereas in the adjoining page, she shrinks down so she is squat and short, illustrating the tall/short opposites.

Aside: We were playing with her play dough salon toy set the other day. The play dough hair was too short for Ana to give the doll a haircut. So, I said, "let's make the hair long, Ana, it is too short now to give a proper haircut". To which she promptly replied, "No, Amma, let's make it tall, let's make the hair tall... it is too short now"! I had not introduced long vs. short to her before, and looks like she just decided Maisy was right about it and promptly corrected me :)

Big/small, happy/sad, hot/cold, tall/short, thick/thin, push/pull, slow/fast, messy/clean were quite straightforward opposites. However, some of the pairs, while not strictly antonyms, were quite delightful to encounter as contrasts: fluffy/spiky, swim/fly, spots/stripes.

Ana loved this book, not surprisingly, as her daycare teacher has read a few other Maisy books to her in school. The text is very simple and the accompanying visuals reinforce the concepts introduced in the pages. Plus, Tallulah makes an appearance in one of the pages, among other friends, where Maisy Alone/Maisy Together is depicted.

Bottomline: A delightful and educational read for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers.

Kids Crafts: Paper Trees

Ironic, isn't it? For our weekend fun craft project, Ana and I made a few trees out of paper! Considering that we are judicious about the use of paper products at home, and considering that it might someday help teach that valuable lesson about conservation, I decided to take off my activist hat and put on the fun-mommy hat for this project.

As usual, Ana being really young to wield the scissors in any safe or useful manner, this project was as much work for me as for her - well, just the preparation work for me, and the finishing work for her.



Supplies: Construction paper, card stock (or just notebook paper), washable craft glue, scissors

We looked around our backyard and our neighborhood, as well as some books we usually read, and picked out the various common generic shapes of bushes and trees. Then, I made cut-outs from construction paper for the tree-tops and the tree-trunks.

Ana applied the glue - the kind that goes on purple so she knows how much and where she is applying - to the backs of the pieces and stuck them on the card stock paper. We used both sides of the card stock, of course :)