Easy Craft for St. Joseph's Day

St. Joseph, the foster father of Jesus, has a feast day on March 19th.  Here's a quick and easy carpenter's square that reminds us of Joseph's work and how he took care of his family.  Here's what you will need:

• 6 popsicle sticks
• craft glue
• scissors
• glitter (optional
• marker (optional)    
• ruler (optional)      

 

 Place a line of glue on one side of a popsicle stick.

Place 2 popsicle sticks on top of the first so that each is covering half the width of the stick, and leaving the bottom stick 1/4th of the length uncovered.








This is a view from the back.

Having the sticks right side up (with the two side-by-side sticks on top) add some glue to the uncovered part of the bottom stick.

Place two more sticks on the bottom anchor stick (where the glue is) at a right angle, perpendicular, to the top sticks.  You may have to wiggle it around to get both to stick.







Here's what it should look like.

 Turn the square over.  Take your last popsicle stick and cut off about 1/3rd of the end.  Take the longer part, and add a bead of glue the length of one side.  Attach it in the middle of the two bottom sticks, to hold them in place.

This is the square all assembled from the back.  You could stop here and have a very rustic finish, with just the wooden sticks showing, or you could keep going.

Take a marker (smaller, thin markers and pens will bleed less, but I wanted a metallic marker, so it's really just your preference) and mark off one inch or centimeter increments, on the straight, inner sides of the square, using a ruler as your guide. 

 Here's how it looks.  Again, you could stop here, or...

 Add a line of glue to the outer popsicle sticks, and spread the glue out with your fingers.

 Add some glitter on top of the glue.  This is best done on a piece of paper, so that once it dries, you can shake off the extra glitter, form a funnel with the paper, and return the glitter to its tube.  You could also just use glitter glue.

 Allow to dry well (half an hour to an hour.)

Here it is!  A carpenter's square in honor of St. Joseph!  Take the opportunity to discuss with your children that St. Joseph was a carpenter, and that's how he would have supported Mary and Jesus.  You can hang these up with a tack or nail, or hot glue some ribbon to the back and hang it up that way.  You can also use these to dress up a St. Joseph's day altar.  For more information on that tradition, search for 'St. Joseph's Altar tradition' on your favorite search engine.  There are many great sites that have pictures of  altars, along with the history, recipes and symbols.

Happy St. Joseph's Day!
Carolyn

A St. Patrick's Day Chromatography Shamrock

Need a last minute idea for St. Patrick's Day?  This shamrock might be just the thing!  Legend has it that St. Patrick used the shamrock to teach the Irish people about the Holy Trinity.  Whether or not that's true, the shamrock does illustrate our belief in God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit, three-in-one, the Holy Trinity.  A huge thank you to my friend, Heidi, who gave me this idea when she suggested chromatography for our kids' science fair!

This craft works well for all kids up through elementary school, because it incorporates science as well as being a craft.  Our Meteorologist loved this and he's nine.  Here's what you need for supplies:

• Coffee Filter
• Washable markers (they bleed better)
• A small cup of water
• Pencil
• Scissors
• Hole Punch
• Ribbon or String
• My printable
• Glue stick

Spread the coffee filter out and color your design onto the center portion.  Using two or three colors will allow the colors to blend and mix, giving pretty designs.  Darker colors work best and will spread well.  My favorite St. Patrick's day colors for shamrocks are green, blue and purple. 

Once you have your filter colored, fold it into a cone, like this:

Next comes the really fun part!  Chromatography is the separation of parts of a mixture.  This is done by putting the mixture (the marker colors) in a solution, in this case a cup of water.  Put the tip of the cone into the water, being careful to put in only the tip.  If you soak the filter, the colors won't have time to separate.  Once the separation slows down, you can put the filter in a little farther.  This will cause the colors to bleed up the length of the cone, like this:

 Make sure you have a tray ready to dry the filters.  Kids love this part and you will have very wet filters before they are done!  I left ours in a cone shape for about an hour, and then opened them up to dry completely.  A blow dryer set on low works very well if you are in a hurry.

This is what ours looked like when opened up:

After they dry, fold the filters in half and cut out the shape of a half shamrock, so that when you open it up, you have a complete shamrock.  Make sure that it has three leaves!  I drew mine lightly with pencil, but you could just cut it.  I traced half the width of the stem, one leaf, and half the width of the other leaf, and cut it out.  This is just like folding paper and cutting out a half heart shape.

I then added my printable poem with a glue stick.  You can print out a sheet with copies of the poem on it here.   Just cut out as many copies as you need and glue it on.  I was liberal with the glue as well, which the Superhero Princess appreciated!

Finally, you can hole punch the top of the filter (just be gentle as they can rip easily) and add a ribbon to hang it up.  You could also mount it on paper, or just put it up on a cork board or the fridge.

Remind your children that we believe in three persons in one God, just as the shamrock is three leaves, but one flower.  Enjoy, and Happy St. Patrick's Day!

God bless you and your family,

Carolyn

Lenten Activities for Your Family, Pt. 4: A Lenten Sensory Tub

This has to be my favorite project this Lent, and it only took about 15 minutes to put it together.  There are many ways to use this, and it's useful for toddlers, preschoolers and school-age kids.  Since it is a sensory tub, it also has the practical purpose of developing pouring, measuring, sorting, classifying, and other skills I'm forgetting!  Here's how to make one.

You'll need:  a tub, ours is a small sweater bin

                    a bag of rice or sand

                    spoons and measuring cups for scooping (sand toys, shovels, rakes, etc. would work too)

                    Lent themed items:  purple cloth which is the color of Lent, the number 40 for 40 days of Lent, letters that spell Lent, rocks, and a cross (ours is 2 branches tied with a purple pipe cleaner.)

                    You could also include twigs, grass, biblical figurines (such as those from a kid's nativity set) pretend pretzels as a Lenten food, and anything purple.  

Start by adding the bag of rice or sand to the tub.  You should use enough to get at least a 1" base in the bottom of the tub.  My preference is rice because I think cleanup is easier.  We also participate in the Rice Bowl in our parish, so it's a nice tie-in!  Next just add your accessories and spoons.  That's it!  Simple and easy!

I pushed our cross into the rice.

You can see the spoons and the number 40.

This is great for toddlers and preschoolers to play with and begin to experience some of the symbols of Lent.  For older kids, you can set this up in your prayer center, or make this a kids prayer center.  The Actor is very tactile, and loves running his hands through the rice or holding a rock while he reads the Bible or prays.  You can also talk about the symbols and what they mean with older children.  For example, purple is the color of penitence, which is why it's used during Lent.  We'll see the priests and deacons wearing purple at Mass.  Jesus spent 40 days in the desert.  Rice can be tied into Rice Bowl and a discussion about hunger and helping others.  Rocks symbolize strength and firmness, reminding us that Lent helps strengthen us to be better followers of Christ. 

This is our bin on the right in our prayer center.

If your kids are above preschool age, you could do a smaller version of this in a serving bowl.  Wrap it in purple cloth and add rice or sand and some rocks.  When your children pray, they can draw their prayers in the sand or rice, hold a rock, or feel the rice or sand in their fingers.  Actually, it works for adults too!  I find praying this way very soothing and calming.  You'll notice in the picture below that I might have added a little too much rice.  I took a good amount out so the children could move it around in the bowl without making a mess.

Our smaller version last year, which works well for older kids.

Some tips for using sensory bins, don't let toddlers or preschoolers use them unsupervised.  Rice is edible, and everything else is too big for Superhero Princess to choke on, but still.  Place a towel or tarp underneath to catch any mess.  My older kids know that everything has to stay contained.  

Let me know if you make your own and how it goes! 

                       Carolyn

Lenten Activities for Your Family, Pt. 3: A Lenten Countdown Calendar

This year I was looking for something a little different as a countdown calendar for my kids.  I wanted to focus on a few of the reasons why there are forty days.  The Israelites wandered in the wilderness for forty years, and Jesus prayed in the desert for forty days.  The Israelites returned to faithfulness during that time, and Jesus was strengthened for His mission during his time in the desert.  The Meteorologist, Actor and I have been talking about how Lent is a time of our own walk in the desert, and it strengthens us to better live out our faith.

I couldn't find what I was looking for, so I made my own!  This is a desert countdown calendar that culminates in the sunrise of Easter.  Kids can color it the way I did above so that by Easter they have a fully  colored in scene, or they could use the traditional purple of Lent.  You can also print out the colored-in version and cross off days that way.

Click here for the colored-in version, and the B & W version to color yourself is here.


Happy Counting Down!!

           Carolyn

Lenten Activities for Your Family, pt. 2

Ever find yourself sighing at your kids' lack of awareness?  That seems to be the issue du jour at the moment in our house.  It's not that they are rude or disrespectful, more that they have no comprehension of how good they've got it, and how they have a responsibility to share that with others.  

So I've devised a Lenten activity that I hope will help them reach a fuller understanding of how other children live.  The printable below is a fun way for kids to donate during Lent.  You'll need to start them with some change.  My kids will be using their allowance, as well as the general family offering.  The idea is for them to count how many of each item you have in your house, then add that amount of coins to your Rice Bowl.  I will supplement this by reading them stories of children in need around the world.  My hope is that they will come to understand that other children do not live with the same privilege that they enjoy.

Click here to get my printable.  Also, I wish I could give credit to the creator of the original idea, as I've seen it in various forms all over the internet.  If anyone knows who first came up with this idea, please let me know so that I can give them recognition!

Our church participates in Rice Bowl through CRS (Catholic Relief Services.)  We always receive a packet with our bowl, so we will use this resource to read stories about people in other parts of the world during Lent.  You can also go to http://www.crsricebowl.org/ to find family resources to supplement your giving.  I hope you have a Lent filled with awareness!

Lenten Activities for Your Family, pt. 1

Lent is such a special time of the year!  It gives us a chance to do some spiritual spring cleaning, to figure out what we are lacking and work on it.  It helps us let go of the things weighing us down and remember the things that we should do to build ourselves up, all so that we can become closer to and reconnect with God.

I inevitably find that I can dive into Lent too much, with all of these ideas for myself and the kids, that a few weeks in, I'm burned out!  There are TONS of great ideas out there, just do an internet search on 'Catholic lenten activities for kids' and you'll see what I mean.  If you are looking to add something for Lent that you can't find here or at church, by all means, do that.  However sometimes less really is more.  I'd encourage you to pick two or three really meaningful ideas for your family and stick with those.  Decide what will work for you on your journey of faith, and go with that.

That being said, I'm going to post several ideas for Lent over the next few days.  I'd love for you to try some of them, but again, choose what works, and don't worry about what won't.  Have a wonderful and prayerful Lent.  So, idea #1:

This is our buffet, with the purple napkins hiding a fun and festive Easter village!

Decorate for Easter:  Okay, hear me out.  What we do in our house is decorate early, so that it is done.  We then cover all the decorations with purple, not to be uncovered until Easter morning.  This is a ton of fun for the kids, and it allows us to stay in the Lent/Holy Week mindset until it is actually Easter.

The thing is, I want the house to be full of Easter when it finally arrives, but I want the children to understand the differences between the seasons, and the reasons for these differences.  I wouldn't be able to clean and decorate in a day, plus put all the Lenten things away, so this gives us a way to clean throughout Lent, and then cover things so that our house still looks like Lent, but we are ready for Easter!  Anything purple will do the trick- napkins, plastic tablecloths, or burlap would work well too.

I decorate specifically for Lent in some parts of the house as well, and this photo might give you some ideas.  This is a simple contemplative area that I set up for Lent.  We participate in the Rice Bowl every year, so I fill a bowl with rice for the kids to touch and to hopefully remember that many children around the world only have rice to eat.  The boys made a cross out of twigs tied with pipe cleaner, and we anchored that in a cup full of rice and draped the cup in purple.  We added the rice bowl donation box, our own bowl of rice, rocks and some votive candles.  This picture was taken near St. Patrick's Day last year, so the Irish blessing frame is there as well.