During the school holidays I am always looking for something that all four of my kids can do together. Something that is interesting enough to entice the nine year olds, fun for the 6 year old, and easy enough for the three year old to join in without driving everyone insane.
Often we rely on our old faithful friend Lego, which everyone plays with for extended periods without too many arguments. Play dough is another activity that all of my kids enjoy, yes, even the nine year olds love a bit of play dough, though they would never admit it! Imaginative play often goes down well when everyone is getting along.
Simple, timeless, art activities also work well. Even when we are all getting on each others nerves a little, as long as each child has their own space to create, art is a great activity for everyone to do together, and that is what we went with this afternoon.
I took the ‘own space’ idea to the extreme today and plonked a pile of triangles and some markers on the table and told them to draw, colour, write and decorate in any way they wanted and later we’d turn the triangles into little flag bunting!
That was all the encouragement they needed and soon the demand for triangles outstripped my ability with the ruler and scissors so I whipped up a quite printable template to make my life easier. You can download the template here if you have a bunch of budding bunting makers!
It was so much fun to see how each of my kids decorated their flags. We had monsters, spots, chickens, puff-balls, rainbows, Frankenweenie, hearts, fish and more.
Before long I had a growing pile of one of a kind paper flags, so I started sewing.
Sewing your own paper bunting is super easy. Start by pulling some thread through your machine so you have a good length before the first flag. Then just feed in your first flag and sew along the top edge. Feed your next flag in just as you finish the first one and keep going until you have sewn all your flags in a long line. Then sew a little longer to get a good length of thread at the end and you are done.
Now you just need to find somewhere to hang your collaborative work of art!
What activities do you break out when you have to entertain a variety of ages?
Find more fun drawing activities here.
Absolutely love this and I look forward to including it in my preschool activity round up. Thanks Kate for linking up to ‘Share It Saturday’. Hope to see more of your posts in the future.
Love it my beauties will love to make these
Love the idea, I’m going to change it slightly & have the Grandchildren draw Christmas ‘stuff’ and use them as Chrissie decorations. Thanks for the great idea
My 3 1/2 year old loved this so much we have HAD to make a set for each of the grandparents and Aunties!
He coloured the whole sheet with art work, then I cut them up. His first effort is proudly displayed on his bedroom door!
Thank you for a great activity.
This is adorable just pinned and shared on FB — planning to make one with my own girls! Would be awesome for birthday care packages, get better care packages, kid’s birthday parties, or as a class activity during a class party to hang up for a teacher!! Love. It.
Warmly,
Pink and Green Mama,
MaryLea
Great idea! I am going to have my 2nd graders make these the first day of school and hang them up for “curtains” in front of the windows. They will love it, and I won’t have to sew curtains! Win, win!