Summer Sunshine

We were gone all weekend for the 4th of July and we came home sick, every one of us. Urgh. I have a list of things I want to blog about, but I'm afraid they just aren't going to happen until we are better and settled back into our normal routine.


But the post about the handprint fireworks reminded me of this cute craft we did back when it felt like spring would never come to Minnesota:





A handprint sun! This was so fun to make and it's been hanging on our kitchen wall since Febraury. It would be a great craft to do now that it's summertime. In fact, every child between 2 and 5 that has seen this has begged to do one like it.
What you need:
Yellow construction paper
Paper plate
Yellow paint mixed with gold glitter (do this beforehand on a small saucer)
Another color of paint - let your child choose, but try to keep it in the orange, red, pink family if possible (pink rays look a little more sunshiney than say, green rays)
glue
scissors
pencil for tracing
paintbrush
2 googly eyes
1 pompom
1 mouth cut from your choice of material - the one pictured here was cut from felt. It added a little texture lesson to the craft.
I let Matthew choose the color of paint for the sun rays, the pompom and the mouth.
First trace your child's hand several times onto yellow construction paper and let him/her paint them the color of his/her choice; when dry cut them out.
Next, have your child paint the back of the paper plate with the yellow paint and gold glitter mixture. If you trust the child with the glue bottle let them put two dots of glue on and stick on the eyes. I helped Matthew by holding the glue bottle with him and letting him squeeze, then quick pulling it away before we had an enormous pool of glue.
Next, stick on the pompom and the mouth in the same manner.
Finally, when everything is dry, glue the hands to the front of the paper plate. Turn it over and you have your cute handprint sunshine guy. :) Enjoy!
Have a beautiful day! ;)

A Little Summer Painting

Matthew has loved painting since he could sit upright in his highchair. I know painting with small children is stressful for some parents, but it is sooo much fun and, in my opinion, the benefits far outweigh the hassle of preparing and cleaning up.

Summer time is the perfect time for letting toddlers paint. Just bring it outside! Fill a little wading pool nearby, use washable tempera paints, and you are good to go. Put them in their little swim diaper or swimsuit, give them a brush and a piece of paper and watch what they create.


I made this handy little outdoor easel and paint tray in less than 15 minutes. Take a large box - this one was an old diaper box. Cut off the two side panels (the small ends). Then flip the box inside out and duct tape it into a triangle shape:
Set it up on a low bench or chair out in the grass, and use a large rock or two to hold it down by placing them inside the triangle. Use masking tape to attach a large piece of paper. We almost always use freezer paper as it is shiny on one side, which is great for fingerpainting, and matte on the other side, which is great for just about everything else.

For the paint tray, I used a small 6-cup muffin tin. Originally I planned to just save the paint in it and add more as needed. However, this particular one started to rust (it was from the dollar store, so I'm not sure if that would happen with all of them, or those that are coated). So now we use small plastic tubs from individual size apple sauce and I attached them to the muffin cups with tacky putty - the kind you use to hang posters, etc. Cleaning them is super easy, though to be honest, we don't really clean them up very often. I just cover everything with aluminum foil and we bring them out whenever we want to paint. If the paint has thickened a little bit, just add a little water, or a little more paint and mix it up. It's easy for a toddler to use because the weight of the muffin pan keeps the paint stable while they dip the brushes in. Regular cups are easy to tip over, but we've used this for a few months now and haven't had a single spill! We have another one that we use for liquid watercolors, and it works just as well.

So go paint with your kids! And have a beautiful day! ;)