For Valentine's Day this year, I thought it would be sweet for Preston to send handmade cards to family and friends. While I think all of the ways Pinterest involves painted hand and footprints are cute and a sweet way to get the little one involved, I shuttered at the thought of a squirmy, paint-covered hand smearing on everything but the paper I was aiming for.
Since he loves stickers and tearing up any piece of paper his hands land on (books, magazines, mail, etc.), I thought this craft was the perfect marriage of his two favorite activities: tearing and sticking. Plus, it was a lot cleaner.
Together, he and I made these incredibly simple tissue paper hearts. I drew some hearts onto drawing paper and roughly cut them out to make each more manageable for Preston to work with. I smeared some glue onto each heart and showed Preston how to tear the tissue paper and stick a piece to where I had just put the glue.
He enjoyed the free license to rip something up and made lots of little tissue paper pieces. But, like he does with stickers, he wanted to peel the piece back off whenever he stuck it to the heart, which made the somewhat permanence of the glue frustrating. I helped him a little just to make sure the heart got completely covered, then I cut them out and wrote a little message on the back so they were ready to mail.
It also helped that the project could be spaced out over the course of several days so that, if he was soon over the whole process, we could abandon it to come back to it later. After one particular melt down (he wanted the glue stick, then was upset when the glue stick made him sticky), I may have just finished up the last two. It's the thought that counts, right?
In the end, not only was it great motor skills practice, but he was able to see the process of making something on his own and sharing the finished product. I'd mark that in the "win" column.
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