Fall crafts

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Friday's Grand Connection Fun

by Mary May Larmoyeux

Fall is officially here!  I so look forward to cool autumn days and the changing colors!

How do you connect with your grandkids during the autumn months? One thing that I've done is make fall placemats with them. It's so easy to do:

•  Snap some pictures of the grands holding pumpkins, sitting in a pile of leaves, or standing by trees that are turning fall colors. Print out the pictures. With the grands, glue or tape the back of each selected picture onto a piece of placemat-size construction paper. 
• Help your grand write a Bible verse about changing seasons on each placemat, such as Daniel 2:21: “He changes times and seasons.” Discuss the verse and memorize it together.
• Now, encourage the grands to decorate the placemat with personal drawings, his/her name, stickers, prints of leaves made from a leaf stamp or a homemade “potato leaf stamp” (directions below), words describing things he/she is grateful for, etc.
•  Date each place mat.

How to Make a Leaf Potato Stamp:

• Wash several baking potatoes and cut them in half (width). Using a sharp knife, carve out the shape of a leaf (a different shape on each potato).
• On each potato, cut away the potato surrounding the shape so that the shape of the leaves will be about one-fourth of an inch. Presto—you have your stamp.
• Pour paints of fall colors into bowls (throw-away bowls are nice to use). Help your grand dip a stamp into a shallow bowl of paint. Now it’s ready for your grand to stamp his/her masterpiece.

As an added touch, the placemats could be laminated.

For long-distance grands: Make and mail some fall placemats to the grands. You may want to send them some stickers of pumpkins and leaves and ask them to create a picture with some of them and mail it back to you.

For older grandkids: Go on a picnic with them (of course, little ones would also enjoy this). Give them a piece of "fall jewelry" such as a necklace with a leaf pendant or a bookmark made in the shape of a leaf.

How do you create fall memories with your grands?

Have fun!
Mary
http://www.marymaywrites.com/
http://grandconnection.blogspot.com/


© 2009 by Mary May Larmoyeux. All rights reserved.

Thanksgiving Memories and Place Mats

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Friday's Grand Connection Fun
by Mary May Larmoyeux

I'd like to share something with you from Heloise's Helpful Hints newspaper column. A reader named Laraine R. wrote that she makes place mats to remember various trips. After using double-stick tape to put trip memorabilia in place on poster board, she covers it with plastic.

My imagination came up with a few more ways that we can use Laraine's fun idea with our grandkids. What about making special Thanksgiving place mats for the family that are filled with memories of people and events that we are grateful for? For example, if a new grandbaby was born this year, we could have a copy of the birth announcement, photographs of Mom and the baby coming home, etc.

Or, maybe a grandchild recently graduated from high school or college. That place mat could have graduation pictures, copies of the invitation, etc. And if there's a little slugger in the family, how about focusing on baseball games and sports celebrations?

Of course, we wouldn't need to use actual pictures in today's world. We could print digital copies of photographs on plain paper. And we might want to focus on lots of people or events that we are thankful for, rather than just one specific person.

Here's another idea: We could help the grands make their own gratitude place mats. They could select pictures, write words, copy Bible verses, etc. onto a piece of poster board. It could be covered with plastic or laminated at a local teacher supply store (Mardel Bookstores often do laminating, too). We could ask grandchildren to make a place mat honoring one of their siblings, parents, or teachers.

Speaking of Thanksgiving, you may want to read the article 10 Ways to Keep Thanks in Thanksgiving . It's in the new issue of Encouraging Women  With Hearts for Their Homes.

Have a great weekend,
Mary
http://www.marymaywrites.com/

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Photo and post © by Mary May Larmoyeux. All right reserved.