DIY

Easter Fun Focusing on Jesus

Hi Mommy Teachers!  I hope you all enjoyed a fabulous Easter!  Many of you may have kids on Spring Break now, or perhaps your Spring Break was last week like my oldest’s was, or if you don’t get a Mardi Gras holiday like we do in Louisiana, yours may have been several weeks ago.  Or if you don’t have a child in school, then perhaps every week is Spring Break… or not.  What is a break when you’re a mom anyway?

Easter was so much fun this year for my family!  The night before Easter, our family had our 4th Annual Glow-in-the-Dark Easter Egg Hunt with friends!  While I read from our Jesus Storybook Bible about Jesus’ crucifixion, burial and resurrection, the dads threw hundreds of glow-in-the-dark eggs in the field.  Jesus is the light in the darkness…great reminder!

Easter

This year, for our egg hunt on Easter morning, we decided to hide 12 Scripture Eggs, or Resurrection Eggs.  We followed the guidelines from Your Homebased Mom’s post for the Easter Scripture Egg Activity.  She shares a list of items/symbols to include in each of your eggs to have a visual element to better connect to each scripture, the twelfth egg being empty to represent the empty tomb. Her post also includes a PDF that you can print out with each of the scriptures on it.

I know that this post is after Easter, but I wanted to share with you how we adapted wonderful activity to our family and how my kids processed it.  Be sure to pin it to your Easter and Holiday Pinterest boards for next year!

www

My kids are 7, 5 and 2 and so I decided to hide three sets of Scripture Eggs to avoid a huge fight over who gets to learn about Jesus ;-).  I used 12 blue, 12 green, and 12 pink eggs and each of my kids knew which color they were searching for.  My kids each got a symbol in their eggs, but I rotated which kid got the scripture reference in his/her egg.  My husband had an New International Version (NIV) Bible open (or you can search for your favorite translation online) because the King James Version (KJV) can be confusing for the kids.

The kids were instructed to find the eggs, but not to open them.  When all the eggs were found, we sat down together and opened one egg at a time in order.  I loved hearing my 7-year-old say, “Hey!  There’s nothing in my 12!” and then the light bulb went off seconds later, “Oooooh because the tomb was empty!”

symbols

The whole family really did enjoy this activity! There was a bigger purpose and defined focus for what each egg represented than years past when we filled the eggs with candy… and even my 2-year-old caught on.  When my oldest was joking around like they do on VeggieTales saying, “Easter is for chocolate bunnies,” my 2-year-old was the one who corrected him, “No, Easter is for Jesus!”

Easter win!

Oh, and here’s a Mommy win for egg dying…

tongs

I call them “egg tongs.”  You’re welcome 😉

Remember to Pin this for next year!

DIY Rain Chain

PicsArt_1402514738083

Head’s up!  Father’s day is THIS WEEKEND, not next like I kept telling myself.  My son had this brilliant idea to buy my husband some outdoor speakers for Father’s Day, which I really thought was a great idea (something I would enjoy too), but have you checked out the prices for those babies?  Yeah – it’s like the cost of formula for a year.  Not gonna happen.

Keep on brainstorming… Well, one thing my husband and I have always wanted is a rain chain… especially the copper ones that hang from beautiful, expensive copper gutters that we don’t have (as seen here in this video).  And those can be upwards of $100 or more… also not going to happen.

So, I decided that we are going to forego the pretty copper and make our own!  And I always say, “who can resist something handmade by kids?”  Let’s take a zero off of that $100 and make something similar for $10!

Supplies:  6 or more small terra cotta pots, 2 – 36″ extender chains for hanging planters

My kids and I picked up these small terra cotta pots from the Dollar General for $1 each.  They thought these were beautiful with the flowers painted on them… but I thought “eek!”  we can paint that… which they were ok with since I mentioned they would be the ones painting them.

  IMG_20140611_084033387

We bought 6 of them (because that’s what they had) and it makes a pretty decent length for a rain chain in my opinion.  We also purchased 36″ extender chains for hanging planters from the Dollar General which was $1.50… so we got 2 of them and got to work!

IMG_20140611_084014089-2 Make sure that your pots have holes in the bottom because that is essential for this project for the chain to go through, and for the water to drain as well (because this is also a functional project).

The chain links are supposed to be bigger than the hole so your pots do not slip down the chain.  But how do you get the chain through the hole?

Using pliers I removed the link where I wanted my pot to rest.  I took that link and squished one side down which was the perfect size to go through the pot.

diyrainchain2

I put about 5-6 links between one pot and the next.

IMG_20140611_115321850 Then my kids wanted to do some more painting so I let them have at it 🙂

IMG_20140611_122901453 This project probably took us about 30 minutes.  I will probably also get a large saucer and put some river rocks in it to collect water on the ground.  A nice little . to the !  (But then this would be more than a $10 project).

Extra:  Extra tip means extra $$.  If you want to seal the paint, use a clear matte acrylic spray paint that you can find at stores that sell spray paint (Walmart, Home Depot, Hobby Lobby, etc.).

Happy Fathers Day to all of you Daddy Teachers and to all the Mommy Teachers who play both roles!

How A Non-Artist Paints Murals

I have always admired artists and dabbled in some pitiful attempts to paint, draw, and the like.

My husband actually found a painting that I did and thought his sister gave it to us and said “This is by far the ugliest painting that Kelsey has ever done.”  Yeah, I’ll probably never let that one go.

But, that same sweet husband helped me paint words on the walls of our new business, and he isn’t an artist either.

IMG_2290

After my years in the classroom, I was gifted an overhead projector from my superstar mother-in-law.  This came in handy.  I printed the words (in the font that I wanted) onto transparencies (at Office Depot), and then simply projected the image onto the wall.

IMG_2296

We then just painted over the shadow of the letters and it nearly looked like someone with art skills had something to do with it.  Murals can also be done this way.  My friend painted the sportsman fleur de lis onto my son’s wall using our projector too.

sportsman fleur de lis

Get inspired y’all!

Displaying Art Work

I took my son to see the doctor for his routine “return-from-traveling-with-a-cold” visit.  After asking the typical questions about his diagnosis, “Is he contagious?”  “What can I give him to stop the whining pain?” my next questions were, “Can I take a picture of your art work?” and “Can I blog about it?”  From the look on her face, this was the first time she had gotten asked that question at an appointment.

You see, I fell in love with how she had her own children’s artwork displayed in her patient rooms.  After she agreed to allow me to take pictures and blog about them, she showed me around the office to see all of her kids’ art!  I just loved it all!  It’s so hard to not just love a painting or drawing done by a child… even if it’s just lines and dots.

The ways that she had the different projects displayed turned simple child art into masterpieces… framed and hung as if they belonged in a gallery.  What child wouldn’t feel so special to have their artwork displayed so prominently in their home?

This is the one that especially caught my eye:

IMG_20140108_142508_413 She took her kids to a local art class and this was the project they did with water colors and crayons.  I love this because she framed the same project done by all three kids.  It’s beautiful and so cheerful!

These paintings could have easily been placed in their baby boxes and forgotten for years until re-discovered down the road when the kids are heading off to college.  Instead, my eyes were immediately drawn to them when I walked into her office.

Arts and crafts stores such as Hobby Lobby and Michaels do custom framing, but you can also just bring them an old frame and whatever artwork/pictures you want to frame.  They will cut a matte to fit (that’s the purple part you see between the frame and the picture).  The matte is what makes this look so polished.

I also love how she had each of the kids sign their names under their artwork.  Real artists in the making!

Here is my other favorite from another of the patient rooms:

IMG_20140108_144332_118 What a great idea to allow your child to use his or her own picture in his/her painting!  I can’t wait to do something similar soon!

This also made me think of my friend’s house and how she displays her kids’ artwork:

1502687_10100239984196982_181946402_o 1. I love the wall decal with one of my favorite quotes and 2. I love the fact that this is interchangeable, but still clean.  (You can purchase a similar wall decal here on Amazon and the wall mount with clips here).

These ideas are all way better than how I have most of our artwork displayed (I’m pretty sure the whole alphabet will not fit on our back doors):

IMG_20140110_093017_846

And obviously my kids now think they can stick anything on the doors since they are now covered in stickers as well.

Here are two other ideas from my house:

IMG_20140110_093242_167

IMG_20140110_093059_264

Jessica also sent me these two amazing pictures and I am totally going to steal this idea because I love it so much!  Let the frame-collecting begin!

1552899_10102977038612785_1807117278_n

1555811_10102977038527955_67455725_n

How do you display your child’s masterpieces?  Please share with us on Facebook @themommyteacher!

 

 

 

 

DIY Ribbon Streamers {With Music Recommendations}

I know y’all are probably burnt out on all-things-present-related.

But, I did want to share a simple idea that was a hit in our house and it doesn’t have to be packaged as a present…my DIY ribbon streamers.

dancing with ribbon streamers

I made ribbon streamers for my nieces and my kiddos because my friend Eliza uses them in her music classes and they are just too perfect for little movers and shakers.

Case in point:

They are SO easy to make and the materials can be found anywhere, but I bought mine at Walmart {with the exception of my ribbon which I bought at Hobby Lobby when they had a half off sale}:

You just need ribbon, scissors (which didn’t make it in the picture because I do everything in a hurry), a lighter, bangles (bracelets), and a hot glue gun is optional.

IMG_1851

I picked out 5 different color spools and this made 7 ribbon streamers.

IMG_1855

I double-knotted each ribbon onto the bangles

IMG_1853

Then I cut them about the same length – about 12-14 inches from the bracelet.

IMG_1856

Finally, I burnt the edges with a lighter so they wouldn’t fray.

(I took a picture but I can’t find it)…once again I do everything in a hurry.

My kids love to dance to this CD at all times:

50 Fun Songs with Mr. Ray Activity Kit (Packaged in carrying case with Stickers, Crayons and Coloring Book)

But, Johnette Downing’s Scarf Activity Songs CD is my favorite to use scarves or ribbons streamers to dance to because the lyrics give directions for moving with the scarves/streamers:

The Second Line - Scarf Activity Songs

I also gave my niece the idea to make these with her school colors for spirit week so it is a great gift for older kids as well!  It’s a modern lemonade-stand-idea for all those little entrepreneurs out there.

You can make these for your kids or “Pin” for a future gift idea, but either way this is our new favorite dancing accessory so it’s worth sharing! 🙂

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...