It is hard to believe that we are well in to January and have had very little snow. We had a week of good sledding, snowman building, and snow fort making snow – and then it disappeared. While my little ones were afraid that was our entire winter – I knew better.
And tonight, as I write this post on a snowflake craft for kids, the snow is falling. Not gently either. Yep, it is a doozy. No doubt the kids will wake up to a world of white tomorrow. Then our winter will truly begin, and the green grass will fade to a memory until the kids question if they will ever see it again (does that sound bleak, oh no … I can’t be tired of winter yet!)
With this chilly winter weather finally arriving, and here to stay for many months, I have brought out the ‘warm’ crafting supplies. The paint, glue, and markers are of course still a staple, but now we also have out the felt, yarn, and wool on an almost daily bases.
My little guys were on a snowflake making kick for quite awhile before Christmas. About this time we collected some sticks during a nature walk, and the idea to turn them into a snowflake was suggested by Sammy.
We could have painted them of course, and painting sticks is a nice activity, but we opted for some yarn wrapping.
During our nature walk we collected a bunch of little twigs. Twigs that were little and sturdy, and ones that had little tiny branches off of them too. When they were stacked together they really resembled a snowflake (if you squint a little).
Yarn wrapping is a great activity to strengthen little hands, and it is quite relaxing as well. Any activity that calms my wild ones will be done as often as possible around here.
To make this cute yarn wrapped snowflake we simply wrapped each twig in white yarn. We used a very fine sparkly yarn – almost a string – but anything would work. Thicker yarn would be easier for little ones.
We began by choosing one twig and knotting a long piece of yarn at the top of it. Then, my little ones wrapped and wrapped, around and around, trying to keep the yarn very close to itself until they got to the end of the twig. We then knotted it to the twig and cut it.
They repeated this for each twig that we had collected. Well, the ones that Mama didn’t accidentally drop (because this does take a long time, and 45 twigs was a bit excessive).
Once the twigs were all wrapped, we organized them into a snowflake(ish) shape. Adding one twig at a time, I wrapped the middle of the sticks together with the white yarn.
Nice and simple.
We added a long piece of string for hanging this pretty snowflake in front of our window.
This snowflake craft is a great activity for a day when the little ones are needing some structure. Most days my kids are happy to explore, play, and create without much guidance.
But some days? Some days I could tell you at 7 am that it was going to be a loooong day. And on a day like that this activity is perfect. An exploration outside and some quiet crafting — a lovely way to spend a morning. Or at least an hour.
Leave a Reply