Break Cabin Fever-"A" Day

Welcome to my first official post of "Break Cabin Fever-26 Days of ABC Crafts." I'm so excited to get this series started. Want more info click HERE.

By the way, Happy New Year! Did you celebrate in style? Or were you old timers like us and went to bed at 10pm? Hey, I'm not ashamed. Mama needs her sleep! Plus we took lil man to the "New Years at Noon" celebrations at the library yesterday so I figured that was our partying. They had crafts, noise makers and a ball drop. Best part, FREE! And they had desserts, so duh it was a good party.

You will hear me say it a million times, but I love our library here. They do so many things for the kids/family, it's really amazing and I have a feeling we are being spoiled.

And before I get into sharing the crafts, I want to answer a question a fan asked the other day. How do you manage to do so much with your toddler, in such a short amount of time? And how do you handle the whole short attention span thing? Simple! I stay organized. I always plan out everything, down to the T. I have a calendar where I write down notes/ideas I want to do. I try to stick to themes, so I can use similar materials in each one. Then the night before, I take a laundry basket and place everything I will need the next day in it. Even glue, scissors and paint brushes. Literally everything, so it's not forgotten. Sometimes I even sort each craft into a basket/bin and then put it in the laundry basket. Then during breakfast, I lay out each craft. You can see how our "A" day was set up below. As for the short attention span, all the crafts are set up in the same area with no distractions around. Then we go, go, go! Until he's literally sick of me. I admit sometimes he wants nothing to do with craft-time. Just gotta be patient and eventually he comes around. It helps that I show him that I can do it and then he wants to do it just like me. Hope that helps!

I also recently created these animal sticks to go with our story times. I just glued these painted wood pieces to a popsicle stick and called it good. It's a great way for me to draw his attention to the books because I move them along with the story.

Now back to the crafts. Your in for a real treat because I have 7 crafts to share today. Hope they inspire you. I also have a snack idea at the end and a few more "A" words to get the brain going. Enjoy!

Dotty Ants-Using a wine cork or something similar, have your child paint dots on a letter A. Then when it's dry, paint some eyes/antennas on to make them look like ants.

Popsicle Stick Airplane-Using a clothespin as the base, hot glue two popsicles sticks on the top & bottom, to resemble wings. Then for the tail, you can either add a wood triangle piece or cut it out of paper. For extra fun, have your child paint their new airplane.

Apple Tree Painting-First cut out some "tree" shapes out of construction paper. Glue them on to another piece of paper. Then using wine corks (or even fingerprints) have your child paint "apples" on the tree. Encourage them that they only need to paint the green leafy part. 

Apple Stamping-Cut a whole apple in half. Reserve half as a snack and the other as a "stamp." Put some paint on a paint and have your child stamp designs on construction paper. This would be great for Valentine's Day too, since the apple stamp will make a heart shape.

Tissue Paper Apples-I found these apple cutouts at Michaels on clearance for $1. I knew they would be perfect for this series(and many more) but you can cut out your own apple shapes too. First take some green tissue paper and cut it into 1 inch squares. Then spread some glue on the apples and have your child drop the tissue paper squares on the glue, making sure to press down lightly so everything sticks. Let dry.

Tissue Paper Alien-With the leftover green tissue paper from the above craft, we made an alien. For the alien's body, you want to cut out a peanut shape out of construction paper. Glue it down to another piece of construction paper. Do the same steps above. Once dry, add an eyeball, antennas and some strips of paper to give it arms/legs.

Triangle Collage-Your asking yourself, why triangles??? Because "A's" are shaped like triangles. You can achieve this craft by cutting triangles out of construction paper and having your child glue them on to the paper.

And last but not least, our snack! Homemade Applesauce. You can involve your child in this one too.
Core and cut 3-4 large sweet apples into quarters. (You can peel them if you like) Place apple pieces into a saucepan. Add 1/2 cup water and sprinkle on 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Cover and let simmer until apples are tender. Once cool enough, let your child mash the cooked apples with a potato masher. Serve cooled.

And if the above crafts weren't enough to get you inspired, here are some words to get the brain juices flowing and maybe you can create your own crafts: Acorn, Acrobat, Adventures, Album, Alligator, Anchor, Angel, Ape, Apron, Arrow, Astronaut, Avocado, Ax

Come back tomorrow for a whole day themed around the letter B!