I llluuuuurrrrvvveee crafts. When I was growing up we had an Arts and Crafts box– actually a red plastic basket– perpetually stocked with glue, popsicle sticks, cotton balls, paints, glitter, and so on. I could while away an afternoon just dumping it out and seeing what I could make. Now that I’m a parent, I’ve been waiting patiently for the Era of Arts and Crafts to arrive. Abigail and I officially ushered it in this Saturday. She’s a champion crafter!
My mom gave us a book on her last visit: Look What You Can Make With Dozens of Household Items. I was idly paging through it on Saturday when Abi climbed on my lap and said, “I want that!” pointing to a picture of a dinosaur made out of a box. I explained that these were things we had to construct ourselves. She sat there browsing with me until we came to a page with egg carton projects. “I want to make creatures!” she announced. So we did.
I assembled the materials: egg carton, glue, yarn, paint, brushes, crayons, scissors, paper. She carefully attended each instruction I gave her, completing each step with deep concentration. She picked what kind of creatures she wanted to make and picked the colors we should paint them. She wielded the paint brush (mostly) and squeezed the glue and stuck on the yarn hair/legs/nest and googly eyes. Twenty minutes in, she laid down on the floor and said she needed a break from paints. A minute later, she was back up and ready to finish our projects. We made a bird in a nest, a spider, and a silly monster. They came out kind of creepy but we were so proud.





