Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Arts and Crafts are Life Skills

First, I have to say that I had wanted to post this yesterday.  Now, because of my procrastination, I get to link this post to Anti-Procrastination Tuesday.

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A couple of weeks ago, my two sons had to create a three-dimensional replica of the earth’s layers, with labels.  There were basically no guidelines except it had to be three-dimensional.

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Both boys complained because it required creativity and they thought it would take too long.  I was so relieved when their father explained to them about how he doesn’t use the trig he learned but he wishes he had spent more time in arts and crafts as a student, since he actually uses those skills, such as all the work he did on our boat last year.  Fiberglass is basically a very expensive form of paper mache.  Connor chose to make his replica out of paper mache.  We mixed a pan of flour and water.  He did not appreciate having to get his hands wet and gooey.  That’s just how he has always been.  It dried fairly quickly as we were having some fantastically warm weather.  As for painting, I just know I gave him some paints and it got done.  I think Connor spent thirty minutes creating his project, not including drying time.  Once he started working on it, he realized it wasn’t that hard.  I don’t know if he was proud of his accomplishment but he was definitely happy to be done.

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Colin chose to make his replica from rice krispy cereal, actually chocolate krispies.  He used jell-o to simulate hot lava.  I think the blue was frosting and the green is sugar sprinkles.  Not quite accurate but very tasty.

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Now, as you can see, I have been very much procrastinating in getting my house vacuumed. My Roomba, DEB (Doing Everything Better) can only do so much.  It’s my turn to get all the dust bunnies cleaned up.

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