Rainy Morning Butterflies

July 15, 2018 /

My “big” two and I are kicking off this rainy day with some arts & crafts for a little impromptu activity time. While they were eating breakfast and I realized we weren’t making it to the pool today due to the downpour (and while two year old already told me he was ready to go to the playground) I decided it was time to try painting again. Since we were out of just about every color construction paper – I needed to use up the random leftovers and so we made some butterflies. While they finished eating I did some simple construction paper cut outs that took all of two minutes. Two quick ovals for the middle and then just fold the paper in half to cut the wings! I opted for a heart-ish shape for this. We put newspaper down under our chairs, put on some smocks and were ready to go.

 

For my younger one I went for one bigger piece of paper which made it easier for her to get the paint on the paper (rather than the table) and not have it move around as much. For the older one though I made two separate wings to decorate one at a time.  He really enjoyed getting to do different things on each side. While we have lots of paints options in our house I just offered them two color choices at a time and then swapped for two more about half way through – they get to make the choice and do some different colors, but I’m not overwhelmed with so much clean up.

 

We let the paint dry and played and took morning naps before coming back for some glitter pens to finish them off! Once that dried I let them glue the bodies on to the wings (choosing front or back) and voila! It was nice to have something to come back and forth to as they got bored throughout the morning.

 

 

 

 

 

Plus it was a fun and simple project that let them explore their creative sides and build their fine motor skills. Both kids did a great job and were super proud to show off their butterflies to Grandma! While my babes enjoyed the free form painting if you have slightly older little ones they might enjoy creating or trying to mimic some butterfly patterns or creating different types of butterflies too!

 

I’ve actually been debating starting theme weeks with the kids for a little while now. This activity may be just enough inspiration to get me going! I want to give myself some direction to go with the babes – instead of just doing the same old things everyday so these butterflies may kick off a Hungry Caterpillar week. We’ll keep you posted as we go so keep checking back for all the different ideas we come up with!

 

Although it’s looking like maybe we’ll get some sun after nap-time so maybe we will make it out to the pool after all!!!

 

 

 

 

 

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