Pinwheel Craft

So, I we did the pinwheel craft today, from Enki's kindy craft book (and Earthways, too, I think). It went really well. DS is often kinda resistant to having me lead the way on anything, so I've been working hard to strike the balance with him and ease his energy on that front. He's so independent, already. But Enki guides discuss how these things can be tenuous between a child and mom as "teacher." They offer plenty of advice on how to troubleshoot, and tonight, it seemed to pay off really well. I didn't get any resistance from him, just an engaged little fella into what we were doing, yay!

He'd had an active, satisfying weekend as a foundation, and was in a good mood already. Then, I waited for him to emerge from a period of free play on his own, after which, he'll eventually come start hanging out with me wanting to do something together. I had the stuff mostly ready to rock, so we just went to his craft table and I kept a nice, calm non-pedantic voice and welcoming spirit and we got to work. Here's a fun video I recently watched comparing a "traditional" craft session with a Waldorf styled craft session: "How to Waldorfize a Lesson Plan"

We used some of our new watercolor painted papers as recommended because they're nice and stiff but easy to handle. I helped match the folds and let DS make the creases while I held the corners/edges for him. He cut straight lines himself along the dotted lines I made for him, and since I only had a glue gun (forgetting I used all our Elmer's on a papier mache project a while back), I had to put on the glue, but he did a great job pressing the punched hole points over the center hole. Now, we just have to drill a hole in some sticks and use our long brads to fasten to those and we'll have it. They're cute and even without the stick, they twirl well, so I think it'll be a fun toy for him. He's been seeing pinwheels at the stores lately, so it's nice timing to make one ourselves at home. Soon, I'll try to digi-pic and add to this post.