Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Those bloody toddlers...

Hi, kids, today we're going to make a sea of blood!

No, we're not. Even though child-fearing me is desperate for stuff to do with the toddlers when they come visit the old folks twice a week, I am NOT going to make the Ten Plagues of Egypt with them, though I found plenty of ideas on home schooling pinterest pages. 

Really, you can make a sea of blood in your bathtub that would have given me a terror of baths when I was little.
And here, Plague of Flies cupcakes!

This is the hardest part of my job--coming up with toddler activities. The old people love them but aren't able to initiate stuff with them, and I just don't know what kids that age can do.

I turn to the Internet, and have decided that instead of making a plague of frogs out of construction paper (tempting though that one is), damned atheist that I am, we are going to sing "Clap Your Hands" with Pete Seeger, and read a Toot & Puddle book, You Are My Sunshine, and then make a rays-of-sunshine mobile out of construction paper

4 comments:

deanna said...

Your craft ideas definitely shine above the plagues of Egypt. (And I love your title.) My beef with biblical Sunday School was, always, the crafts. Not that people don't get creative...but the educational purpose is lost somehow. Plagues were tragic; they weren't cupcakes!

I prefer your sunshiny purposes.

Zhoen said...

My favorite when I was a kid was Michael Row Your Boat Ashore.

You could make little boats.

Bookworm said...

There is a great Making Art blog on the Eric Carle Museum website with excellent but simple ideas for art activities.

It looks like you are brilliant at your new job.

Fresca said...

DEANNA: " Plagues were tragic; they weren't cupcakes!"
Yes! If I were a Christian home-schooler, that's what I'd want to teach: compassion for the sorrows of the world, some of which we even (tragically) bring on ourselves.

ZHOEN: Hey, yeah! Small boats out of newspaper--that would be fun.

BOOKWORM: THANK YOU!!
I am going to help the grown-ups make the Jell-O scented & colored play-dough I found there. Then they can use it to play with the kids, I hope...
http://carlemuseum.org/blogs/making-art/guest-post-emilys-experience-citrus-dough