Springy Craftiness

Last year, you might remember, I was planning the All-Green Festivities, which left little room for craftiness because I was busy buying beer and making Irish music CDs. This year, we can't afford a big party, so we're having Ben's birthday at a bowling alley next weekend, leaving me free to have a messy house and do some St. Patrick's Day crafts with the boys.

I went to Mom's night at Ben's Montessori preschool and was so impressed with the tidy jobs and his development of fine motor control and how much he enjoyed "Prap-ti-pal Life", so I immediately looked up Montessori-themed blogs to try to carry the ideas over to home. This cool rainbow mural was inspired by My Montessori Journey. It was a perfect way to keep them busy while I made dinner.

So first I cut strips of colored cardstock in red, orange, yellow, blue and purple. I buy the value size packs of cardstock when they're on sale, and then store them in my craft closet so we have them on hand.


Then I set Benjamin to cutting squares from the strips with his safety scissors.



I drew a rainbow in pencil on a piece of butcher paper taped to the wall. Thank you to the Freecycler from whom I picked up this big roll of paper. We use it all the time. I wrote the names of each color in the correct section.


Then, when his little fingers cramped up from cutting, Benjamin set to glueing the squares.


By this time, A. was interested and joined in.


It could be a multi-day, multi-kid project, but after dinner Benjamin wanted me to glue with him, so we finished it by bedtime.

A. added a pot of gold. And a sun and some clouds. He's in charge of atmosphere.


I gotta say, I like it a lot. And Benjamin was extremely impressed with himself. And it was done completely with stuff we had on hand.