by Rachel Peachey

One of my weaknesses is arts and crafts.  I enjoy the process of creation and making something fun. So, I do what every good mother does.  I force it upon my kids.  Just kidding – it’s not quite like that.  But, it’s a point of connection that we do enjoy together.  Lately, whenever I’m feeling disconnected, or like we need some quality mama-son time, I wrack my brains for something fun to create together.

My little peanut is three and a half and quite taken, okay, OBSESSED, with dinosaurs, lizards, snakes and all reptiles existing or extinct.  So, we’ve collected quite a bunch of small model toys, dinosaur bone puzzles and models and all sorts of creatures that can be found all around the house.  Sometimes I find a little dinosaur in the pila (our big concrete sink) and other times, I’ll admit, I step on them.  Ouch!  My poor sister in law got a scare the other day because she found a quite realistic rubber snake on the bed  when she was here looking after the kids.

So, I decided to do a two for one. We’d keep our house slightly more organized and create a play space by making “homes” for these animals. First, we made a home complete with two volcanoes, and a standing tree for “Big Dinosaur Bones”.  Peanut had quite a fun time helping to color and enthusiastically scribbled fire all over the sky.  Very cool.  That was a few nights ago.

Last night, we made a smaller space for a bunch of homeless reptiles.  Peanut wanted them to have a swimming pool.  So, we cut off the bottom of a carton of orange juice.  We discovered, much to our delight, that we could color on it with crayons – so we drew some fish and colored it blue for the water.  The reptiles have been alternating between bathing and drying in the sun since then!  Who knew our little crafting activity would turn into a lesson about how cold-blooded animals live?

I love these open-ended crafting projects because there’s always something to be learned.  If nothing else, little Peanut works on his fine motor skills and we have a great time connecting together.  As a stay at home working mom, sometimes I worry that he’ll always think of me typing away on the computer, rushing to meet a deadline.  I am pretty good about keeping my evenings open – but having a special mama-son project always makes these times even more precious.

What did you do for fun last night?