Kid Art Project: Paper Strip Christmas Tree

Thankfully I snapped these pictures early this week. It just took me all week to get around to writing this post, because that is how I roll. I love blogging–I really do. I love my readers and I want to share more, write more and do more. Three kids at home makes it hard to make any commitments during the day and by night–I’m done. Even if I’m up, I want to chill out with the Mindy Project or New Girl or one of my TV dramas and catch up with the hubs.

Sidenote: Mindy’s secret santa gift from Danny had me dying. I was laughing so hard. Like couldn’t breathe.

Stay with me for a second here. Here in Wisconsin it is dark by 4:30. Seriously. On top of all that it has been super gloomy. Well today, today the sun was shining. And all I could think was, “I NEED to get pictures for my blog”. I am a stay-at-home mom with three kids. After lunch and after I got one down for a nap and one ushered off to 4k, and one kind of just chilling–this is what I was left with.

If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook (Which you should!) you already saw this. So I spend all afternoon cleaning. Scrubbing hardened oatmeal off of bowls and the table, loading the dishwasher, scrubbing the counter tops, picking up toys, organizing toys (God! How do they have so.many.toys), taking out garbage and recyclables and vacuuming. I barely finished it in time to run off and pick Quinn up from his afternoon 4k class. And guess what? By the time I got home, it was dark! So here is to hoping I can keep the mess at bay and the sun comes out tomorrow. (cue Annie).

I promise you a far more inspirational holiday home tour. Right now you can be inspired by the fact that I hardly have it all together.

All you Pinterest folks who clicked over are like: I thought she was going to show us an art project?

I am. Ironically, one I first saw on Pinterest and cannot track the source.

These cuties love a project. They clearly belong to me. I love this project because it is open to interpretation plus you the kiddos can work on fun skills like size and ordering.

You need glue. I prefer a glue stick because little ones like to go cray cray with liquid glue and it is a good year before that stuff dries.  Nobody has time for that. Can I just tell you what a pain it is to transport their projects that are drowning in glue every.single.time we go to story time. Doesn’t matter how many times you say, “Just a little bit.” or, “only put glue where you are going to put something”.

Back to that list- Glue, a plan sheet of paper (ours is legal size, because I found  a stack of it in the basement), a variety of colored paper (construction paper), scissors and/or paper cutter, optional tree topper (craft puff).

I cut the construction paper into half inch strips using the paper cutter. Then I cut the strips in half or at the 1/4 mark or 3/4 mark. Eyeballing it of course.

I lined up the paper in size order. You can totally have the kiddos help you with this. Then I told them we were going to start with the smallest paper. Let them show you which pile this is. So I threw the pile with the smallest in front of them and they did some gluing. We continued in that manner.

I too participated in the project. You are never too old to do an art project. Hudson ate puffs. All was merry. Seriously, it was. When kids are involved and focused on a task they don’t have the energy to create chaos or argue or drive you crazy. Not that my kids would ever do any of that. Seriously, they are good kids, but they are still KIDS.

So we left them to dry. Since we used a glue stick it was just a few minutes. Mostly I was worried about that darn puff ball falling off. Eleanor’s did (shh…don’t tell her) and I never had a puff ball, because I was too lazy to go downstairs and get one for me. I attempted a paper star number at the top–not a fan of how it turned out.

Since we are all about the Kindergarten chic Christmas this year, I hung their art work up.

I used washi tape, since it fun and decorative and it wont ruin any finishes and should even come off their artwork okay.

A little close look at our paper strip Christmas tree project. Mine is at the top, then Quinn and then Eleanor. I gave them the concept, but then I let them go with it. Don’t micro mange your kid’s art project. It will give you a headache, make them lose interest and totally kill the creativity.

So if you are looking to shut the kids up for a bit an art project, this one is super simple and lots of fun.

Now if you are all like, I love this project and I want everyone in the world to know about it and I want everyone to find this awesome blog with this mom who clearly doesn’t have it all together–then by all means pin away.

Do your kids love projects too? Are you doing any holiday crafting with the kids? Or by yourself? If not, please feel free to leave a comment anyways–just don’t tell me what happen on Scandal, because I haven’t seen it yet.

 

Sharing this project at: Link Party Palooza