Holiday Arts and Crafts

The five year old is not easily swayed
  by his Mama's itch to create.

She could, however, suggest a few,
  let it bounce in his head and stew.

If something catches his fancy,
  he gets quite antsy,
   and, then we are on a roll.




Glue and Chalk Pastel art is one of the staples, quite a favorite with both the kids. It does not have instant gratification, though, as there is a considerable wait period for the glue to dry before proceeding to add color. Going with the season, he did a generic conifer. As always, we started the project one evening, and left it by the vent overnight to dry, so that first thing next morning we had something fun to do.

Last year, Ana was enthusiastic about salt dough ornaments. This year, she had other crafting plans, so, Oggie was happy to do it all. Once I got the dough ready, he was eager to roll out flat and start cutting shapes with cookie cutters. Again, this is a prolonged process as the salt dough shapes have to be baked for about 4 or 5 hours, after which they need to cool for an hour or so before they are ready to be painted. We started the process in the evening, baked, and then allowed to cool overnight, so that the ornaments were ready for painting the next morning.

Of course, he wanted to make a card for Santa and write a note as well. I drew a generic snowman shape in pencil. Then, Oggie took over. First "color in" the snowman with white oil pastel. Then, add the wintry background with chalk pastel. Blend. Use color pencils to add in the details like arms, face, mittens, hat etc.

A little over a year ago, during our study of birds, chalk pastels was much used and loved. So any project involving chalk pastels is usually welcome. And, white oil pastel is a favorite for the Winter Magic painting where we can preserve the white of the paper while adding color as needed.