Friday, May 11, 2012

Gifts For Classmates


Continuing with our end-of-the-school-year gift-making, here are egg shakers for the girls' classmates. We got the idea from MaryAnne here at Mama Smiles some weeks ago and decided it was perfect for several reasons:
  • the girls -even Kate - could do it by themselves 
  • it was colorful, which is always a hit
  • it can be personalized to the n-th degree if the girls wished
  • it could quickly be mass-produced (unlike sewing and cardboard crafts)
  • we could even invite the neighbors to come craft with us!
  • we have a collection of percussion instruments at home (we sometimes have jam sessions, which the girls love) and we use our real egg (and other) shakers a lot. We're hoping the girls' classmates will use theirs for something similar. 

But because of the high mess-potential, we first needed to wait patiently for a nice, warm, outdoor-sort-of-day. When it finally arrived, we got out the supplies and arranged them on our driveway-

a rainbow of colored sand

some pony beads

and colorful electrician's tape.

And the girls set to work.

We were making about 50 eggs, so we took our time, over several warm days, with breaks in between to run off to the swings and backyards to play with friends.

The girls decorated a few of the eggs, but mostly they left them plain so they could hand them out at will to their classmates. 

Incidentally, this is how we survive messy crafts at home. I mean, I strongly believe that children can benefit from both the neat/sterile crafts that many parents prefer, as well as the messy ones. We are not afraid of the messy ones, but only because we've learned to do them outside, on the driveway. If the mess is small, we let the rain take care of it; if it's a major disaster, we sweep it up and dump it right into the trashcan in the garage. And yes, we've played with Moon Sand - also only on the driveway!

Two more Gift posts left!

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