Kids crafts

Last week was my son’s last day of pre-school. It was a great introduction to school and I am (mostly) looking forward to sending him off to kindergarten this fall.

He had a great year and had some really amazing teachers who made it fun for him to go each day Most days I didn’t even get so much as a wave good-bye as he was running into the classroom to play.

I wanted to do a gift card of some sort, but I knew the one teacher did not like tea or coffee. Both teachers have young families and since our family goes out for ice cream a lot during the summer months, I decided on a gift card for Dairy Queen.

I enlisted the help of my mom to make the cards. She was happy to do it and I knew she’d do a great job so this was one place I was happy to pass the DIY torch over.

The cards turned out great and I love that my mom even thought to included a small pocket inside for me to tuck the gift cards into!

And as a little something to go with the cards and gift cards, I decided to use a couple of the plastic pots we had leftover from an activity at my daughter’s birthday party. (There’s more on that to come, I promise!)

I designed a new insert to go in the plastic pots and had my son color and decorate one for each of the two teachers.

Now coloring and crafting is NOT my sons strong suit. It has been a battle all year to get him to do the crafts at pre-school and if it was left up to him he chose to play with toys or build with blocks before touching a crayon or scissors. At pick-up each day I would see each kid coming out with their wonderful creations, and my son was almost always empty handed.

Knowing this, I hope the teachers appreciated his efforts to sit down and actually create something for them. He seemed to try and get through the coloring part quickly so he could get to the playing in the dirt and planting, but he did seem quite proud of his creations at the end.

The gifts turned out great and I hope it help show the appreciation for his wonderful teachers. My daughter is already excited at the idea of starting at the same pre-school in the fall because of her big brother’s great experience.

Okay, technically it is no longer summer, but we did manage to finish one more item from our summer bucket list over the weekend: attending a Home Depot Kids Workshop.

Since getting possession of our new house, we have spent more then our fair share of time (and money) at Home Depot and Lowes. We always have the kids in tow and while they are generally pretty agreeable, they have made it known that visiting the hardware store is not the most exciting activity for them. And who can blame them, really? Riding in the racecar cart is only exciting for so long!

On one of our many trips to Home Depot this winter, we just happened to be in the lumber section towards the back of the store and my son noticed that there was a crowd of kids painting and building. He desperately wanted in on the action, but I was pretty sure it that you needed to have registered for it and I quickly steered him away. Expressing his disappointment, I promised it was something I would look into and that he could attend the next time. It took me a few months, but I finally make true to my promise.

The Home Depot Kids Workshops take place on this first Saturday of every month. The project details are always available on their website ahead of time and I was able to register for the class online via their simple form. I admit that when I have looked before the projects haven’t always appealed to me, but I was excited to see this month’s was something my 4 year old could build and actually play with.

We arrived at the store right at 10am. Once there, Camden was welcomed warmly by the Home Depot staff and given his official orange Home Depot apron with his name on it!

Our project for the day was building an Emergency Service vehicle. At each spot at the table was a complete packaged kit with instructions, stickers, wood, wheels and the nails needed to put the project together. The instructions were clear to follow and the wood all had pre-drilled holes that made it easy to get the nails started and in the right locations. It all came together fairly quickly and my son was quite proud that he was able to wield the hammer and actually help put the vehicle together.

Once assembled, they had a table full of paint for the kids to customize their creations. Camden stuck to his favorite color, green!

Instead of waiting in store for the paint to dry, we decided to bring everything home and finish putting the stickers on there. We were given a friendly good-bye from the staff and a cute little certificate of completion that Camden proudly held the entire drive home.

The kids were also each given a project pin that I assume are meant to be collected and added to their apron as they attend more of these clinics.

It was a fun activity for my son and made for a great little “date” for he and I to do without his little sister tagging along. And the best part is that it was all completely FREE!

We had it on our Summer Bucket List, but this is something you can definitely do in those upcoming winter months when you are all going stir crazy and need a reason to get out of the house. Yes, it means yet another trip to the hardware store for the kids, but trust me they won’t be complaining this time around!

Similarily, Lowes offers FREE Build and Grow Clinics for children aged 5 and up. There is a great looking haunted house coming up on October 18th and I have seen other movie themed projects such as Turbo or How to Train Your Dragon in the past. This is something I will definitely be checking later in the year after my son turns 5.