Creativity ... I love it!

I personally have always been a crafty person, not everything I'm attempting to make turns out "right" but I've always enjoyed making things. I attempt to incorporate crafts into our schedule, partly because I enjoy making them and mostly because my kids do too. But, we're on a pretty tight budget around here so I usually get pretty creative with our supplies. During yard sale season I specifically look for bags of yarn (doesn't matter if the skeens are full just yarn) and other odds and ends the kids can use to create. I shop dollar stores and clearance racks constantly. I ask family and friends to donate unwanted things like left over bits of yarn, scraps of fabric, and news papers. I save empty toilet paper rolls much to the dismay of my husband (they're starting to take over shelf space). And I attempt to remake things into other things all the time.

My children enjoy making things and I'm constantly finding them hard at work making something ... anything. Things I wouldn't have thought about making. Mind you, my kids have a TON of toys, Peanut cannot possibly play with all of hers for goodness sakes. And yet, the last few days have found paper dolls in the making, leashes for stuffed animals chain-stitched out of yarn and fingers, paper laptops and cases for those laptops that include a glued on stand to keep it open as well as mice for those laptops. These are just items that they randomly make because an idea pops into their heads. 

There are a few crafts that get thrown at them from already put together kits that I buy (usually at a dollar each) or melting broken crayons to make "new" ones. We do "projects" like our "I Can" cans and the thankful leaf wall. Little hands like to be kept busy.

Today we spent some time painting our sun catchers that Daddy picked up from Dollar Tree last week. All of the kids finished them about the same time and all of them did a wonderful job. This occupied almost an hour of their time today. The kids love painting and I have a few ceramic things I've saved for awhile that I think I'll let them loose on sometime this week. As for the sun catchers, I'll have the kids thread some string through their tops and we'll hang them in their windows tomorrow or Tuesday. With the weather getting colder it helps to have some pretty colors to remind of us spring. When they're hung up I'll include a picture of each hanging with the proud artist in front of them on our Facebook page.

I'm still so very happy to be a nominee in the Best NEW Homeschool Blog category of the Homeschool Blog Awards. I am not worried about winning, just very happy and proud to have been nominated. Pop on over there and give your vote to your favorite blogs. You can vote every day from now until the 18th of Nov. from any of your devices that can access the web. That means that those of you with a few laptops, cell phones, and desktops and vote once for one blog in all twenty categories once a day from each of those devices. Click here to vote.

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