One of the reasons I love sharing arts and crafts is because when I started homeschooling, one of the things my child who had gone to public school missed was the crafts they did. Needless to say, i make an ardent effort to ensure that they get their share of these activities.

1. These “creative cut-ups” were purchased at toys-r-us; it contains 10 projects. Each page includes a stencil and instructions that need to be followed in order to achieve the result. Below is an example of one project. These encourage:
   – use of scissors
   – use of tape and/or glue
   – following directions.

2. This semester we enrolled for art classes. In their first session, they were introduced to painting of canvases using acrylic paints, use of stamps, blending colors and we learned a little trick: a hair dryer can be used to speed up the drying process of these paints. 🙂 As you can see, at least one of my children is ready for cooler temperatures and fall!

3. Melissa and Doug bracelet making. Home school, contrary to popular belief doesn’t entail being weird and un-socialized so we had a play date during which time the girls made bracelets. These turned out really cute and they had fun making them! These bracelets hold together with Velcro.

4. Spirograph- This was a result of a late night Target run but its proven to bring many minutes of entertainment and some pretty cool designs.

5. Basket Weaving- Our local community home school group had a field trip to the Morris Museum of Art where they discussed Georgia artifacts and talked about some of the  history. I don’t generally like history but this was particularly interesting because of the manner in which the curator told the stories- using pictures and exquisite art pieces as the story line. After the trip ended, the students were able to engage in a basket weaving activity; reminiscent of cotton weaving.