Sheriff's Badge

Ethan has a cowboy birthday coming up at the end of the month. WOW! Another year older!! I searched high and low for a gender neutral project to do at the party. Nothin' Nada. Zippo. There was the usual "Pin the tail on the Donkey", or hire a pony for pony rides. So the only alternative was to come up with something on my own! Here's what we came up with. :)
Age: 3.5 and up

Materials
Felt
Pom-Poms
Puff Paint
Scissors
Pin Back
Aleene's Fabric Fusion (NOT the tacky glue) - this stuff is permanent

Have your little cowpoke put his painting shirt on, in the event he gets some paint on himself.

Step 1. Adult: you will have to cut out a template of the badge, and trace it onto the felt using a sharpie(r), then cut it out.

Step 2. Adult: glue the pin back to the reverse side of the badge using Aleene's Fabric Fusion. Allow the glue to dry overnight. Make sure the glue is under and over the pin back so it stays in place.



Step 3. Have your cowboy decorate the badge. He will only be limited by the colors of paints you have! I did make a border using gold paint so Ethan would stay inside the lines, but this is your call.
3a. While your child is painting to his heart's content, you need to write SHERIFF on another piece of felt to glue on once the paint is dry. I found the easiest thing to do is write SHERIFF, then cut the felt to fit on the badge.

Step 4. Leave some room for pompoms on the end (you can use sequins, or leave it blank if you wish too!). Glue the pompoms with Aleene's Fabric Fusion. Adult: put a dab of glue on the badge, and have Cowpoke put them on.
4a. If the badge is slightly dry, you can glue the word SHERIFF to the badge. If not, you'll have to wait.

Step 5. Wait for the badge to dry. Depending on how much paint was used, this will take some time.

kids storybooks

What kid doesn't like stories? Reading them. Making them up as they go along. Making up words when they don't know the words. Any way you look at it, children love books. Do you remember asking to hear one more story about you as a child? A current family favorite is "Goodnight, Gorilla
", which is a cute book about a zoo keeper and the animals in the zoo. The only words in the the book are Goodnight Gorilla, Goodnight Hyena, etc. The whole story is essentially made up as you go along - it can change each time.
This tutorial uses the same principles - a book with out words, that can change each time. A variation for older children would be to add words.

Age: 3.5 and up
Materials: crayons, colored pencils, markers
rubber stamps and stamp pad
old magazines or catalogs
various colors of paper
cardstock or bristol board
glue, glue stick, etc
scissors
photo album (from the dollar store or walmart)

1. Have your child stamp on a sturdy piece of paper. In this case, we used bristol board, which is slightly sturdier than cardstock, and is much larger. The stamping can be in a random pattern, as they are going to be cut out in a later step. *Note* you can pick up rubber stamps for cheap if you hunt for them. :) I've gotten mine for as little as .25. Check the bargain bins at Michaels, Target, etc. If you don't have rubber stamps, your child can cut out pictures from an old magazine, or draw pictures.


2. Have your child cut out the images to his or her liking. If the stamp is square, the cut out image does not have to be square. The way your child has cut it out is the way he or she wants it.
2a. While Junior is cutting out the images, cut the background page to the size of the photo album. We used a 4x6 album. Ask your child how many pages he would like to have for his book; you can always add more later. We used 4.

3. Glue pieces to the cardstock. You can have multiple images on one page. The randomness does not matter. Remember this is your child's book.

4. Allow him to draw pictures on separate pieces of paper for "filler". He doesn't need to know this is "filler". :) Simply say, "Ok. Now draw some pictures for your book." No power of suggestion, just his own imagination!

5. Ask him to arrange the pages to his liking, and help him insert them in the blank pages.
Your book is complete! (Be on the lookout for variations of this tutorial soon!!)


*Variation for older children* I came across a fun quilt called a story quilt. It had a series of lines (diagonal and straight) and X's. You could decide what part to tell next based on the line. An older child can have multiple images on a page with lines to tell them which part to tell next. Again the story can vary each time.

no-sew polar fleece scarf

It's possible that you might have never set foot in a fabric store. And with good reason, it can be daunting knowing the difference between organza and cotton. Or the best types of fabrics to use for different projects.
This is a fool proof project for your child. :)
Age: 6 and up
Skills: able to cut a straight line
Materials:

• 1/4 yard (9 inches, 22.86 cm) of polar fleece (make sure you let the person at the cutting table know that you need a little extra if it looks like the fabric is not 9 inches exactly. Sometimes as fabric is cut it can shift and not be straight. Adult: make sure that you make the fabric even on both ends. This can frustrate a child if it's not exact.)
  
• fabric scissors (there is not getting around this. Household scissors will not do the job. Children's scissors will work, but they have to be higher quality (around $4). I have a pair of Fiskar's I received for a Christmas gift as a child - they are ONLY for fabric to ensure that they stay sharp. I can't imagine they were more than $10).

1. Open scarf up from the fold so you have one long piece of fabric.
2. Cut a 3" straight line 1/2" down, and each 1/2" to make a fringe. Then turn and cut fringe on the other side to match the first. See picture below. You should have 18 fringes on each side.

* The edges don't need to be hemmed because of the nature of polar fleece. *

Hint: this scarf makes great Christmas gifts for friends and family.

Where do I start with art?

"I'm tired of useless crafts. You know the paper ones?" I told my sister in law. I'd really like my son to make something 'useful'. Whatever that means for a 4 year old boy. In my mind it means, no more paper and glue, or crafts that clutter the house. Handicrafts have been used to strengthen hand-eye coordination for year, why not something practical?

All the crafts listed here are mom approved, kid tested. I would recommend allowing your child to express him/herself freely. It is so tough to restrain from saying, 'Johnny, how about you do it this way,' or 'No, no, no Sally. That's not the way to do it.' Let them express themselves. Just as babies learn about their environment in various ways, children learn about their environment by doing!! IF your child becomes frustrated, intervene. But restrain!

Create a mess friendly environment. I like to recycle bread bags or plastic grocery bags by cutting them open to create a large surface suitable for making a mess.

I studied Psychology for my undergrad. Two very interesting ideas I took away from two very different classes were:
1. Children are very impressionable. It is better to say, "Susy would you draw a person?" than "Susy would you draw me a person". By using the word me, the child is going to draw something YOU like, rather than what is in his or her heart. You will learn a lot about a child by what he/she draws. For a while, my son drew pictures of my husband, himself, and I, and was excluding his baby sister. There was a lot of stress around her birth. At the time we were seeing a therapist for some behavior issues with the 4 year old, and the therapist said that it was likely that he was having 'issues' with his sister...you may notice some interesting things come up in your child's drawings. Again, the best thing to do is let him express what is in his heart!
2. As cute as coloring books are, they limit a child's creativity. A child is limited to a set drawing, rather than what is in his or her heart or head. I don't allow coloring books in my house (although they would make life easier sometimes). There will be times that your child will be exposed to coloring pages (library story time, Sunday school, etc), but as a rule of thumb, you don't want them to be limited artistically. Art is very mathematical, and requires problem solving skills.

When you are working with children, remember that you are not creating the next Monet (but you MAY have one on your hands!); you are honing fine motor skills, teaching problem solving skills, and math - among creating something beautiful!

One last thought I'd like to leave you with - the outcome is not as important as the process. My favorite art professors would respond with, "I don't know, why don't you try it," when I would ask, "What would happen if I painted on ______." How do you know what the end result is going to be if you don't try it! Go ahead! Try it!!

How this site will be set up.
All the projects will be tested on kids of various ages. I love feedback, so please send yours! I will note who the project was tested on, but most likely will be my 4 year old son. :) Please also email pictures or projects your children have loved doing and/or projects you have LOVED receiving!

General rule: fine motor skills didn't 'kick in' with my son, until he was about 3. We stuck with painting and drawing projects before 3. You know what your child is capable of. Any project can be simplified for your sweet one to do; regardless of age.

HAVE FUN!!!