Arts-N-Crafts: Primp-Up-My-Rockies

When Maia was still a toddler, our house converted to a daycare during the afternoons. Maia had made friends with several village kids and they soon became regulars in our household. I never worried about my little girl's social interaction then because she was with a playgroup every day. Her inherently shy demeanor started to fade away as we began to notice that she's started warming up to other kids easily. I can also tell how influential this daily interaction with other kids was to improving her communication skills. She soon became really verbal. She looked forward to these play dates everyday but all that had to end abruptly when Ate Inday left. The kid had to quickly learn to be by herself and instead make imaginary friends to invite to her 'parties'. She coped well with the changes in her environment and we could tell that she finally was having fun on her own but we also know how she longed to be with real kids to play tag, fight over toys and have real conversations with. Now that Ate Inday's back (yes, she's back! yipee!), imagine her delight. It's been two weeks and our house has never been without a kid since! The daycare resumed operations! :)

Even on a weekend, we had a kid over.  So last Saturday while Shea (Maia's BFF) spent the morning with us, I took the opportunity to inject something creative into the kids' day by giving them painting duties. I took out some stones that I brought back from our Antique vacation last April and everyone got busy primping up their little rockies. Even Ate Inday joined in the fun!

Maia, Shea and Ate Inday's masterpieces

What You Will Need:

• Stones (flat ones are better)
• Poster/tempera paint
• Googly eyes/Buttons/Beads
• Tinsel decor I saved from a few Christmases ago
• Ribbons
• Glue
• Scissors
• Paint brush
• Used newspapers

How to do it:

1. Cover the area where you plan to do the activity with used newspapers, grab a stone and paint it with your favorite color.

2. Let it dry in the sun for a few minutes.

3. While you're waiting for your little rocks to dry, the kids can be occupied by free style painting. In our case, we just handed them some scratch papers and they painted away.

Check out Shea's artwork. Isn't that pretty?

This was a funny scene. While Maia was painting on her paper,
I think she suddenly recalled their wet-on-wet painting sessions at St Michael.
She started with "Over the meadow"...
long pause, then she goes "ano nga sunod nun Mommy?" (what comes after that again, Mommy?)
I had to stifle a laugh because I know Maia always gets self-conscious when she hears us laugh over her witty/funny remarks.

4. When the rockies dried up, they each took their stones and started decorating it till their heart's content.

little girl was so engrossed with primping up her rockie

5. Primped up rockies can be made into paperweights and even as storytelling characters. Just let your kid's imagination flow!

Maia and Shea enjoyed this activity. They even showed their masterpieces to Shea's mom when she came to pick Shea up. Next time when I have more kids over, I'll have more art activities ready so they'd always look forward to spending a day in our house (talk of bribery no?). That way, the little kid will stop pressuring me and her dad to buy babies at the palengke (marketplace). Works well for me (since I am on the win-win side here).