Adventures In Crafting: A Week Of Colors

Yes, I made it!  I completed a full month of creating crafts and activities for my son based on weekly themes.  This week was colors and it was fun and messy.

Monday

Green Day!  I started off the week planning on doing one color a day.  CJ had a visitor on this day which is just as exciting for me as I have the opportunity to see how other children like the crafts.  I don't know if it is because his friend is a girl or just her personality, but she always participates a little better in the crafts (she is 5 months older than my son).  I just put out green play dough, green crayons and markers to color leaves and a clovers that I printed and I also got out the green pipe cleaners.  Later in the day (not shown) I printed pictures of all things green and put them in a folder and went through the pictures with my son.

Tuesday

The color is Blue!  I had the idea of water and clouds so I recalled that painting style I did when I was a kid where you put globs of paint on the paper and fold it and press the globs out and the final product is this cool psychedelic painting.  We tried that and he seemed pretty interested.  The second craft was making clouds with cotton balls on blue construction paper.  He was mostly interested in the cotton balls and playing with the glue.  It was fun!

Wednesday

Halloween...mommy took this as a break to just let him learn about the holiday.  There were parties and trick or treating which he learned to really enjoy.  He called it "going to see the houses".

Thursday

He had his My Gym class and we just recovered from the holiday.

Friday

I got back in the game with Rainbow Day.  I found this website that made rainbows with Fruitloops, generic of course.  It was really fun separating the colors.  Once again, I had more fun making the rainbows than my son.  He enjoyed pointing out the different colors in the bowls which is the whole idea anyway.  We used cotton balls to make the clouds at the end of the rainbows.

Saturday

I added an extra multicolor day as I kept putting off making Jell-O.  I know Jell-O is supposed to be easy, but I clearly did something wrong.  I think it was a result of using different brands.  It was so messy that I came up with the idea of mixing the colors to see what we could get.  It was still fun and this time he found out that the craft was edible.

This is the last post of the series.  I am going to continue to do crafts every week and sometimes the whole week will be one theme and some weeks will be a mix.  Since it is a lot of work to do a weekly recap and blog every single thing, I will just randomly post with hit activities, good ideas I find online or any where, and all things pertaining to kids.

Things I Learned (Full Recap):
1.  Making themed week and planned crafts really helps both of us get through each day, but can me a lot of work on mommy to prepare.  Time goes by fast and he is not constantly begging to go play (at a playroom) or be outside every moment.
2.  I am not a bad mom if I just let him be independent sometimes and entertain himself while I get work done.
3.  I don't know how many times I will have to remind myself this, but not everything will work for him.

The Swap

Approximately one year ago, my dear friend who also happens to be my neighbor, brought up the suggestion of doing a Date Night Swap.  No, not swapping boyfriends or husbands, but babysitting for our kids.  One weekend she goes out and I would watch her little girl and the next weekend my hubby and I go out and she would watch our son.  This was the perfect situation because our children have to same schedule so the plan was always come to the person's house once the chickadees were asleep.  Then life happened and she was blessed with a baby boy and we took a break from that......

Well when I became a Stay At Home Mom...Sort Of, I got a real quick reality check when I found my house was not spotless like I assumed it would be if I was not working outside the home.  Amidst my frustration, the wheels got to spinning and I came up with another swap.  "Day Time Swap"!  I brought it up to my friend and we have been doing it for the past few months.  We each take each other's kids for 3 hours once a week, rotating each week.  I have got everything done from deep cleaning the kitchen to running errands like I did before I became a mommy.  My friend also usually cleans up, but one day treated herself to a shopping trip (Bjorn in tow of course) and was in heaven.  The best part is it works on either end.  If you are watching the kids, you child gets a play mate AND the hours we chose includes lunch so when you pick up your kid or the other goes home, it's nap time.

I recommend this to anyone who has friends or a friend that you trust with a child the same age.  Even start as a trial.  It is the greatest thing ever.  I am so grateful for my friend for coming up with the first swap, leaving me comfortable enough to suggest the second.