More Fun Crafts with the Grands

A fun craft idea to do with the kids/grandkids as summer ends and those kids return to school!

Here is another fairly easy craft to do that takes advantage of your kids' creativity and imagination. The items needed (besides art supplies) are your cell phone camera and a printer. 

You'll need to ask them to name all the jobs they'd like to have when they grow up. Or take advantage of the pretend time and your observations of that time--what are they always pretending they want to be? My grandson LOVES dinosaurs, so I was pretty sure he'd want to be a paleontologist or a dinosaur hunter. He also loves sharks, so I knew he would be up for a "pretend" encounter with sharks. We brainstormed some other ideas and then we were set to go!

I took this picture of him pretending to ride the surf and encountering some sharks.

Take some fun photos!

We got his boogie board and pretended it was a surf board. We tried to make it an action shot, like he was actually on the water. Then we printed that picture out, cut it out, and glued it on the drawing paper. He then filled in all the details of surf and sea and those dreaded sharks.

We did the same with some poses of him pretending to hunt dinosaurs. We had the photo of him in an astronaut's suit that we had made at the museum last year, so we just went with that. He still had to draw the rocket, moonscape, and the view of Earth, the "Big Blue Marble."

We cut out another pose of him and then my grandson added two sharks in the water.

In a world of dinosaurs and on a hunt!

We used this photo of him from a museum visit last year. We cut it out and he drew all the details to make it look like the moon.

Another variation of this theme:

An added idea is to take a portrait shot of your child or grandchild. Then just use this headshot. Enlarge it quite a bit. Glue that on the art paper, and then your child has to create a headpiece around it. Again, we brainstormed: Indian chief, Roman gladiator, king, or action hero.

A Roman gladiator. We had to do some research on this one.

The king himself. My grandson commented that it looked like the king was in his bed rather than on his throne.

Just have FUN! And let your imaginations run wild!

His grandfather and I actually participated in this last assignment. His poppa took his headshot and became a native American chieftain. I drew Cleopatra's wig, headpiece and jewelry around my headshot. We had a laughing good time!

I know many of you are not having close contact with your grandchildren at this time because of Covid-19. And many of you do not live in the same town as your grands. Simply send them an art box with details for this project. How fun to mail them an art box as a fun summertime surprise. Include crayons, paints and craft paper. It can still happen. And then when everyone finishes their masterpieces, you can share on FaceTime. 

As my sister always says, "Life is what you make it!" Life with your kids and grandkids should be fun--even during a pandemic!