even without her own pinterest account, this trend seemed to seep into the consciousness of my 5-year-old. go figure. first we potted the herbs into two large pots. N said that she would decorate the basil and rosemary pot, and the other (sage, cilantro, and parsley) was for me to adorn. i felt honored to get to do one, as i assumed she’d do both. yay!

she decided we needed our shrinky dink herb tags here, but the ones we made a couple years ago weren’t the same types of herbs, so we spent an afternoon making new shrinky dink tags. (easy steps: scribble with colored pencil on rough side, cut shape, write herb name with sharpie on smooth side, heat shrink, stick in soil.)

then it was time for the houses. i gave her a choice of using natural materials (like she does in the yard) or painting some wooden birdhouses we have ($1 bin at michael’s.) she chose the painted route, and we got to work on our fairy houses.

next we gathered up some items for landscaping… like colorful marbles, stones, shells, sea glass, and even a few of the lovely painted sticks we made a couple years ago. N excitedly designed her fairy herb pot.

she spent a lot of time getting everything just right for the fairies. what a hostess!

the herb pots are so darn sweet… and we’ve spent some time over the past month (has it been that long!!!??!) clipping sprigs of herbs for our dinners and sprucing up the fairy neighborhoods.

before my trip, we got a book at the library called the kiss box. this was serendipity, as we did not pre-read it before checking it out, but it came in  handy in the days leading up to my weekend away. the story is about a momma bear who needs to go away from her little bear for a while, and the little bear suggests creating a box to put kisses in. the momma can take this with her and get a kiss whenever she needs one while away, and the little bear asks momma to make a box for him to have at home for the same purpose.

and wouldn’t you know it… the day before my trip, when i came home from work, N gifted me with a kiss box of my very own. she told me that she put 116 kisses inside for me to have while i was away.

she asked me to make one for her, too. and i did – immediately. she wanted to listen to me fill it with the kisses. i put 121 inside while she counted.

i carried my kiss box in my purse during my weekend trip, and kept it by my bedside when i slept. i did get kisses from it every morning and night, and a couple throughout the day.

when N and i spoke over the phone while i was away, we asked each other how many kisses we used that day. it was a fun way to stay connected despite the distance.

in addition to being fun, this art activity really shows how art can serve as a transitional object, and thus be therapeutic for children throughout their individuating from parents and when experiencing separation. according to mahler’s object-relations theory, transitional objects are external symbols for internal needs, though the child thinks of these objects as an extension of the body. object relations theory dovetails with attachment theory in that the primary care giver is the first transitional object, and often a child’s blanket or teddy bear can end up becoming a transitional object.

what’s so lovely about art therapy is that it can uniquely support this concept because the art made can also be viewed as an extension of the self, neither external nor internal. the art then becomes a holding environment for the child, which will increase his or her ability to tolerate object attachment and loss. in this case, the kiss box was a good reminder of my presence when i wasn’t able to be there with my daughter. and let me tell ya, the homecoming was spectacularly sweet!

airport welcome

tip #1: purchase the thick, dense sponge to use as your work area. make sure it’s at least 12″ x 10″ as i tried my first felting project (the fox) on that tiiiny sponge that came with my needles. ack! many an injury. (those needles are wicked sharp!) here’s how i began a dove for two friends’ baby blessing ceremony altar gift…

sure, it looks like a seal at first (and i could totally begin a seal this way sometime,) but she later gets her wings and beak. (and a pretty handmade necklace, too.)

tip #2: when felting the body (the main base) for an animal, try not to make it too dense. wool roving is made harder and harder with every poke of the needle. in fact, you can make wool as hard as a rock, but then it would not be moldable once it is in that state. if the wool isn’t too dense, you can shape it easily with the needle, and sometimes even tweak it with your hands, just as you would sculpt clay. i am seriously amazed at the responsiveness of this molding medium!

owl for a 5-year-old's harry potter themed birthday

tip #3: you can create the body parts separately, and affix them to each other (or to the main torso base) easily. after they are formed, attach them to the base by poking the needle completely through the body part (head, leg, etc) and into the base repeatedly. by doing this from different angles over and over, the pieces will join. to smooth over the joint (and simultaneously strengthen it) wrap a thin layer of wool around it and felt it into place.

bunny for N's easter basket

tip #4: you don’t necessarily need a pattern to needle felt an animal. if you find an image of one you’d like to make (google image search works great for this) you can break the body down into its parts in your mind, like i did with the seal-turned-dove up there. there’s really no need to invest in a book or patterns. if you’re gonna spend money, spend it buying pretty wool roving!

improv turtle design for a sweet turtle-loving 3-year-old's bday gift

tip #5: have fun with it! the possibilities are endless!

now, please tell me your needle felting tips — like i said, i’ve only been at it for about a month (and three needle injuries) so far…

N wanted to “play teacher” after a rainy school day a couple weeks ago, and decided to teach me how they do their wet-on-wet watercoloring in class. this was sort of impromptu so i didn’t set up our colorations liquid watercolors in the way i usually do, which is to put out some combination of primary colors (red, yellow, and blue… or cyan, magenta, and yellow, etc.) in baby food jars. i LOVE using baby food jars for liquid watercolors because i can put the lids back on them and save the remaining paint for another day. no wasted paint, and a good use for the zillions of jars i scored on freecycle.

on this painting day, we broke out our favorite palette of watercolor cakes and some student-grade watercolor paper. for intentional projects, we often use the heavy strathmore watercolor paper, and we also keep a large box of canson watercolor paper for N to use since she tends to blow through at least 10 sheets in a sitting, and paints often throughout the week. it’s not the toothiest, heaviest of papers, but you can’t beat $14 for 100 sheets of watercolor paper. we were all set to begin. the first thing we had to do to prepare our paper was to round the corners. all of the paper in the waldorf kindergarten has been pre-cut (by teachers) to have rounded edges.

then N showed me how to get our sheets of paper wet in the sink and how to blot them gently with a cloth before painting. she set up each of our painting areas how they do at school, and when it was time to paint, she recited the verse the teacher says as they wet their brushes to begin:

“the little bird comes down and picks up peter paintbrush, and peter paintbrush rests on the earth below. peter paintbrush dips himself into the well and dries himself off on the blue cloth and goes to play with the rainbow fairies.” 

then we painted together while N, “playing teacher,” sings the painting song her teacher quietly sings during painting time, which goes like this:

“rainbow fairies come my way. share with us your golden light today.” [repeat until your brain is numb.]

as i’ve mentioned before, all of the art in the waldorf kindergarten is marked with the child’s symbol (usually something in nature like the sun, a tree, a flower, a ladybug) instead of their name. because i did not have a symbol yet, N assigned one to me — i am the moon. i love that. so i labeled my painting as such, and included the date.

we generally paint (and make most projects) on a well-loved art board, but i saw this handmade painting board for wet-on-wet watercoloring on the waldorf homeschooling blog, and my new obsession is to make a couple of these for these peaceful times when peter paintbrush gets to play with those crazy rainbow fairies.

my husband, craig, created one and N created one herself alongside him. (i wish he had taken photos of this!) the one you see above is one she created and colored. craig wrote the color names on it, N did the numbers inside, and craig made up the fortunes.

i love the fortunes they came up with on the inside, like “you will have magic in your hands” and “you will be surrounded by loving friends” and “you will discover a secret cave with treasure” — among others.

hours of enjoyment, i tell ya!

after N folded another one, she colored a face on it to make a puppet. she noted that “it’s hard to color it when it’s already folded!”

later in the day, N emerged from her room with “envelopes” she had created on her own by folding paper and taping it. this is what i found on my dresser as a gift.

and when i opened it, LOVE inside…

we capped off our paper-folding sick day with making origami bunnies that our friends over at tinkerlab happened to post that same morning my husband initiated paper fortune tellers. i love how the collective unconscious works, don’t you?

making our tinkerlab-inspired bunnies

perhaps we’re ready to try out some other origami animals. i was saving it for an older age, but we’ll see how it goes if the interest is piqued right now… at what age do you think origami is appropriate for kids?