I'm a big fan of TV. Like, huge. (Picture me saying that as Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman.) Before The Kid came along--and when he's not home--I have the TV on non-stop. It's my background noise when I'm doing whatever it is that I'm occupied with; there are only a handful of shows I actually sit and watch.
I do try to stem my couch potato impulses when I'm hanging out with The Kid, and not have the both of us posted in front of the TV all the time. To be honest, he probably watches a total of two hours a day...don't judge. :P
Not defaulting to turning on the TV was much easier when I worked outside of the house. Spending a full day with The Kid was an event, and it was treated as such. When you only get two full days a week together, why would you spend it watching TV? But now, I have to make a concerted effort to come up with fun and nourishing activities. And it turns out, I love doing crafts with my kid! (I probably could have told you that before, but now it's confirmed.) "Becoming more comfortable with arts and crafts" was on my resolution list a few years ago, when I realized that to effectively teach Creative Drama to young kids, I was going to have to give them art projects. I think I've been pretty successful on that end!
Here's a roundup of some of the crafts The Kid and I have done together for the holidays...
Whew! It's been an artful month! I think doing art with The Kid is so much fun. It allowed us to explore both of the winter holidays we celebrate in our family in a tactile way. Springtime crafts soon?
I do try to stem my couch potato impulses when I'm hanging out with The Kid, and not have the both of us posted in front of the TV all the time. To be honest, he probably watches a total of two hours a day...don't judge. :P
Not defaulting to turning on the TV was much easier when I worked outside of the house. Spending a full day with The Kid was an event, and it was treated as such. When you only get two full days a week together, why would you spend it watching TV? But now, I have to make a concerted effort to come up with fun and nourishing activities. And it turns out, I love doing crafts with my kid! (I probably could have told you that before, but now it's confirmed.) "Becoming more comfortable with arts and crafts" was on my resolution list a few years ago, when I realized that to effectively teach Creative Drama to young kids, I was going to have to give them art projects. I think I've been pretty successful on that end!
Here's a roundup of some of the crafts The Kid and I have done together for the holidays...
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| Glued circles and rectangles to a piece of blue paper to make snowmen! (I can't believe it hasn't really snowed in A2 yet! Did I just jinx us??) |
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| Made and decorated gingerbread cookies! (Cookie recipe from Cook's Illustrated; amazing sugar frosting recipe from The Kitchn.) |
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| The old preschool stand-by: dreidel suncatchers! (Basis for this activity from The Artful Parent; I used watered-down glue instead of liquid starch, because my grocery store didn't stock the starch. I also put the wax paper inside a dreidel cut-out. Because Hanukkah.) |
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| I went into The Kid's class to teach them about Hanukkah. Guess what I did with them! |
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| We made peppermint marshmallows! They. Were. Excellent. And somehow, we still have some. (Recipe from A Beautiful Mess.) |
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| We made some ornaments for our tree. Meet Santa and Jewish Guy! (Basis for this activity from Red Ted Art. I looped some embroidery floss through Santa's cap to make an ornament. Jewish Guy used pretty much the same technique, using blue paint for his body, and a small felt circle yarmulke.) |
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| And we made a handprint snowman ornament using a kit made by a parent in the 4s class at The Kid's school! |
Your children are very fortunate! What a rich environment!
ReplyDeleteLooks like you both had fun creating! You chose some neat crafts!
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