Craft Time

Well, I'm back from Playgroup.

And I need to make a correction to one of my previous entries. February is not Reading Month. January was Reading Month. February is Nursery Rhymes Month. I know you'll all sleep better knowing that. I will.

And today's Craft was a little book, made in the shape of the child's hand and bound with yarn. A little complex for a 3-year-old, but I guess the Ham Radio kits hadn't arrived yet. As for the book project, an example was provided to follow. The first page, or cover, had "Sonwun's Story," written on it. Page two was supposed to list something he liked to do: "Sonwun likes to play baseball."

Page 3: "Sonwun loves Mommy, Daddy and Sontoo."

Page 4: "Sonwun likes to eat toast and jam."

Well, fortunately, there was a group of Grade 8 students there to help out. Now before I go on here, I should mention that the "young helpers" have been another bone of contention for me. Usually, they are Grade 5s and, sorry, they're relatively useless. And, in some cases, they're detrimental. They actually compete for the toys with the 0 to 4-year-olds. These Grade 8s, however, left a much better impression. They seemed to actually understand why there were there. And I appreciated it. While I sat back with Sontoo, enjoying a cup of crappy coffee, young Austin (Grade 8) tackled the unenviable task of assisting Sonwun, who, as previously mentioned, loves to spread glue, colour everything and cut with scissors in no particular pattern. In the end, the two of them pulled it off. Austin really impressed me with his patience and willingness to stick it out to the end. Really nice to see in one so young.

And there was some other good news. Jake was there this week with his son. So I had someone talk to and commiserate with as Austin attempted to learn what Sonwun's favourite food and favourite activity were.

While the mommies sat at the far end of the room, Jake and I worked on some additional pages for the little books:

Page 5: "Sonwun prefers his martini shaken, not stirred."

Page 6: "Sonwun thinks massive spending is not the best way to beat a recession."

Page 7: "Sonwun is Pro Choice, now that he and his brother are safe."

Or one for little Mercedes' book (the little princess with a proper, pristine mommy from hell) : "Mercedes likes her coffee like her men . . ."

Would have killed to see Mommy's face if we slipped that into her little book.

Anyway, we kept our pages out of the little books. And, while Sonwun really had no idea what was going on with that book, his Mommy loved it. As soon as she saw it, she insisted we put the date on it and put it away in a memory book. So, mission accomplished. And I guess that's why it's mostly mommies at these little gatherings and this is why we do these silly little crafts.

And here's the exciting part . . . as February is Nursery Rhyme Month, next week, the kids are supposed to dress up as their favourite Nursery Rhyme character. Jake and I have already decided that next week will more likely be Wii Day at Jake's house.