Crafting with Zachary

One of the things I would love to spend more time doing is to craft with Zachary. I want to get him started early thinking in creatively. Hopefully, that will help him develop his lateral thinking abilities. I haven't been able to since I work full time and my home is divided between giving him and Amelia attention. However, a few weeks ago I did manage some quality crafting time with him and here's what we made.

We took a shoe box, in this case a shoe box with a connected lid, and created a diorama of a jungle. I had to keep it rather simple bearing in mind the fine motor skills of a 25 month old. To keep it simple, I chose to work with coloured paper and sticky tape. Zach did all the sticking together. Tree tops to tree trunks. The blue and green paper for the scenery. He particularly loved sticking on the clouds. I did all the paper cutting. He dictated where the trees and the grass went. I suggested the river and he was pleased with the idea as his turtle needed a place to swim.

I must say, it turned out better than I had expected. He enjoyed himself tremendously and loves playing with it. And the great thing about working with a shoe box with a connected lid is that the diorama stays pretty safe when it needs to be packed away.