My husband and I LOVE babysitting nights – and so does our
four year old grandson. We both just
enjoy being with Zach and whether we go to the nearby park playground, play in
our yard or do indoor activities we always have a good time.
On babysitting nights Zach usually arrives around 4:30 PM
and is picked up by his parents before 9 PM.
So we have a good amount of time together and plan for various
activities. There is playtime before
dinner, dinner, playtime, bath, winding down which may be reading, TV or more
play before his parents arrive. We have
plenty of indoor and outdoor toys here so I am fine with just playing it by
ear. Zach and I also enjoy playing board
games together. But my husband is willing
to put in lots of preparation time coming up with ideas for craft project and
preparing materials in advance. I have
never been the crafty or creative type so I don’t do this. I do, however, get to reap the benefits.
This is the story of the very successful Pirate craft project.
Hugh got the idea for this craft project while watching Peppa
Pig with Zach. You can see the
inspirational video for this project here:
On Peppa Pig - Danny’s Pirate Party – It features “Granddad
Dog”
Hugh pre-made craft pieces for us to complete together -
pirate hats, eye patches, swords and a flag.
We covered the kitchen table with newspaper and had a glue fest
decorating the hats and flag. Zach
colored his sword and said that I could do mine. When I jokingly asked if I could decorate
mine with hearts he said “Yes, you can make a girly one." “Girly one?" He is 4 and he has a view of what is “girly.” Apparently that includes hearts. Well I decided on hearts on one side and
stars on the other. That’s bubble wrap
at the top of the sword – to make for a soft and safe hit. We played with it until it was time for a
bath and then he carried it upstairs – but I made him keep it in our bedroom
and not take it in the bathroom. After
his bath he wore the pirate stuff and nothing else and continued “pirate play."
This is a great craft project for a grandfather to
plan, prepare and lead. He proudly showed his
parents the whole ensemble when they arrived and he wanted to take it all home.
I got a small Bath and Body Works
shopping bag and he loaded it with his pirate treasures to take home.
Pop get an a+ for a great idea and the preparation work he
put into making this successful. We were
rewarded with big goodnight kisses as Zach left for home and we were ready to
turn off our lights too.
Oh and by the way the cost for this evening of fun together was virtually nothing. We had construction paper, markers, glue sticks, used bubble wrap and some scrap elastic in our rarely used sewing box.
2 comments:
I am pinning this to Rocket's board on my Pinterest because we collect pirates having tones of pirate kid books that we read to him. He even has a Pirate's hideout where PaPa's man cave used to be complete with a pirates rug. This will fit right in!!
I love it when grandfathers get involved!
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