Crafty

I was looking at some cute crafts my sister-in-law had done with her kids today and wondering why I won’t try to do fun little things like that more often. I did once let them paint colorful milk on bread before toasting it. That was a hit, and I’m not bad at giving them “tasks” to complete with a picture – something they must create like a new planet and the creatures that inhabit it or some such. But, in truth, that is generally just to keep them busy and I am not involved until called in at the end to view the finished products. Perhaps even worse than the not-so-bad fact that I don’t do creative stuff with them very often, is the awful fact that I sometimes discourage them doing such things themselves simply because of the potential for mess. Take Daisy for example. She is actually quite the crafty girl in her own right. There is always so much cut up paper, glue, etc. left around after though that I am not always encouraging. Still, I’m trying to be less concerned about the clutter. I didn’t even make a peep when Goldie dumped out several bags of beans yesterday so she could glue them to paper:
And here is a little of the stuff Daisy has managed to create despite my "stop the mess" nature:
She had made a mouse in school and then came home and all on her own helped Goldie recreate a similar thing.
Another time she made a bus and used those little metal clips that splay out in back (which I didn’t even know we had) to make the paper wheels actually turn.
She seems to enjoy collages where she will make the shape of a holiday thing and fill it in with paper, stickers and marker – such as this Christmas tree.
But here is something so cute it makes me want to cry. It is my favorite thing ever made by one of my children. This was actually made by 3 year old Goldie this Halloween. Abe and Daisy were busy doing there own sophisticated crafts and weren’t interested in helping her, so all on her own she made this spider. She did all the cutting and taping of body and legs (which is tricky for those inexperienced little hands) as well as the drawing of the face. When she showed me this little spider she’d done all on her own I nearly passed out at being so in love with my child (that is one thing I love about motherhood. Not just the constant love for your child, but the occasional waves of nearly crushing adoration).