This year I decided it would be fun for the girls to paint their own ornaments for the tree so early in December we headed to Van Grow to paint. Below shows the finished product after they were fired and we picked them up 2 weeks later.

Then later in the day we decorated the inside and outside tree which is always fun.

Supplies: Contact Paper, Tissue Paper, Sharpie, Scissors

Step 1 : draw the outline of  pumpkin on clear contact paper

Step 2: I gave all three girls a mix of orange and yellow tissue paper. Then they just put them on the sticky part. I put a few pieces of green construction paper at the top.

Step 3: Cut out and peel another piece of contact paper and place it on top as smoothly as you can with the help of the kid

Step 4: Hang it up like a suncatcher and start writing what you are thankful for.

As Nadia and Amelie would say, “Easy Peasy. Lemon Squeasy.”

Nadia was so excited to attend Art Camp at church again this year. She choose to do leather work with Mr. Steve and visual art with Miss Sarah again. There was no way she was going to pick dance, garage band or drama since that would require a performance in front of people

In leather work she made an assortment of small items like coasters, but their big project was a leather belt with buckle. She painted it gold and stamped it with cats and leaves.

She loves this belt because she made it, and because she says she likes to pretend it is real gold.

In Visual Arts our friend Sarah decided to have the kids focus on 3D art and Nadia thought it was fantastic. Above is Nadia’s “house” and she decided that it was a small version that her paper mache giraffes could live in on her dresser.

Here is a close up of the giraffes.

The 3D ice cream cone. Nadia had so much fun making this and was so proud to bring it home. We are very blessed that our church does this each year now. I love the idea that we offer up the talents of the people in the church to share with the kids in our church and community each year.

This is not from Art Camp, but is her parasol that she made in China Camp last month. It’s just so pretty I put it in this blog post with all her other creations.

I gave each girl a bowl, fork, spoon and funnel. For easy clean up I placed some beach towels on the floor. Once they were done I tossed their clothes and the towels straight into the washer.

Both girls thought this was great fun. They said it was squishy, messy and drippy. Nadia spent so much time kneading hers that we had to add more water to soften it up again. Amelie loved the feel of it dripping off her hands. Once they washed their hands they did have a slight green tint, but it washed off by the next day. We will definitely do this again.

I think my eyes bugged out more than the girls when I saw this set up!

This year my friend Laura invited us over to do Gingerbread Houses with her and I am so glad she did!! She had big houses set up for her and I. Then she let the girls pick between houses, trees or a carousel. They both chose to do a chalet. Laura gave us each bowls to fill with candy, a bag of icing and we got to work.

Hard at work.

The front of Nadia’s house.

The front of Amelie’s house.

The front of my house.

The back of my house. And because I got to do my own, that meant I could be symmetrical Laura says that we can make this a new tradition and we are so excited!

And this is the craft gingerbread house that the girls made with Aunt Tahni during her visit. I think we covered all the gingerbread bases.

So I saw this awesome pumpkin idea over at the Imagination Tree ( I love her blog). This was really easy to do with some mini pumpkins from Target and acrylic paint from Michael’s. I let the girls pick the glitter colors at the store and the rest we had at home in our craft stash.

Yeah for gravity!

Once they dried I put a coat of Mod Podge on to prevent the paint from peeling. The girls were really excited with how these turned out and were so happy to put them outside with the other pumpkins on the porch. And it was oh so easy to do and clean up, so I highly recommend this activity!

When the Homeschool Buyers Co-op had a sale on the Home Art Studio curriculum I snagged all the levels. I wanted them for the girls and I knew I was going to be teaching art for the younger kids in our homeschool co-op this year. As I was deciding on which lessons to teach, I thought the girls needed to be my guinea pigs timing wise. I chose the ‘Color Mixing Hands’ so that Amelie could take part too. I prepped all the supplies in advance and then let the girls watch the DVD. We paused as needed and it was easy for them to follow along.

This was the end of part one and we had to leave the hand prints to dry. PS. I love our new elastic edge vinyl tablecloth that I can pull out for projects like this.

Now it was time to mix up the background colors.

The finished project. Amelie’s looks a little wild, but considering it is a kindergarten project, I think she did a great job.

This year I was asked to teach Drama for Art Camp at our church and of course I said yes! This is the first year Nadia has been old enough to attend, but she wasn’t having any part of my class since the kids were going to perform in some manner at the end of the week. Instead she chose leather work and painting with two people she adores – Mr. Steve for leather work and Miss Sarah for painting. (Miss Sarah is also her drawing teacher)

I had a group of 3 smaller kids and 5 older kids and we all had so much fun!! I started with the basics and moved along as fast as the kids could handle. By the end of the week the big girls had created their own skit after I gave them a basic idea. They came up with their props and costumes and then I arranged for my niece Gwen to come visit and do the makeup for all the kids on the final day.

Older girls practicing their skit.

Little kids practicing changing “mood” based on what emotion I yell out.

Nothing but fun with these girls.

Make up time.

The little’s created their own super hero with powers and costumes.

Nadia’s major art work of the week.

Nadia’s super cool journal she made in leather work class.

We had a great time, but by the end I was beat The kids were really entertaining and creative and I was so happy to be a part of the week with them.

I knew going into this playtime I was in for a big mess by the end, but I also knew the girls would love it. It was way too hot to go outside, so I set this up on our pantry floor in front of the washer and dryer. A few weeks earlier, I set aside some of the multicolored water beads from the batch that I froze for outside play. I filled up 8 portion cups with shaving cream and gave them some “tools” to sculpt with.

The first thing Nadia wanted to do was attempt to shape the shaving cream into something interesting. Amelie started by coating the water beads in the cream. At that point I left them to it and told them to call me when they were done.

This is what I saw when I came back – Amelie was trying to get it on every exposed body part. Nadia was saying she was done because the smell was too strong – HA!

The towels on the floor made for an easy clean up and I put both girls directly into the bathtub. I think they both would have liked this better if I could find some unscented shave cream, but even the sensitive skin scent smelled too much like aftershave.

I saw someone mention these Sticky Mosaics by Orb on Facebook and immediately looked them up on Amazon. I knew that Amelie would love them, so I suggested that Nonnie buy her some for her birthday. They are so great!!! Amelie was a sweet girl and shared with Nadia and they both had a great time.

The girls had a lot of fun with these and they even came with some rhinestones which they both love to stick on things. The designs go on a really thick paperboard that makes them more stable and they have held up well for a couple of months now. My mom bought the Zoo Animals and Fairies. I think that I will be putting more of these on Amelie’s Christmas list because she loves stickers so much.

I highly recommend these because they are really easy for the kids to do.  They are also great for fine motor skill practice and matching up shapes.

The amazon carousel below is an affiliate link if you want to order — I have also seen them at Hobby Lobby, but I am not sure how the price compares.