A friend gave me a large bagful of corks last week. She works as a waitress and she has been collecting them, as she thought they d be handy for me to use with the kids to make something with. I m getting such lovely support from friends and family after embarking on my blog journey, it’s really helping to keep me motivated and to keep thinking up new ideas for us to explore.
The first activity which came to mind was to do some cork painting with them. I sat down with my 2 and 4 year old for this activity. I m really looking forward to the kids breaking up for the holidays next week, as it will give me more chance to get my 6 year old involved in a few more of our activities. He seems to have missed out on quite a few this month. He s full of ideas though, so I m sure he ll make up for it.
To begin the activity I squeezed out little blobs of red, yellow, green, blue, pink and orange paint onto a paper plate. I always give each of my children their own set of paints as it generally cuts down on one argument at least!
We then set to work making flower pictures. My 4 year old really got into this activity but after a few stamps with her corks, my 2 year old daughter then had her own ideas. “Look Mummy, hand painting!” she called, as she mixed her hands into the plateful of paint turning it into a lovely mucky brown colour. She then proceeded to slap her hands all over the paper I had placed in front of her for her flower picture. Now I was very grateful for this, as she did have paint all the way up her arms by this point and it wouldn’t have been unlike her to have made a dive for a lovely piece of furniture!
Even though she didn’t complete the task we had set out to do, she had had a great time exploring the texture of the paint with her hands and she was so proud of her handprints, I really couldn’t begrudge her the ten minutes I had to spend cleaning her up.
Whilst my daughter had been busy getting messy, my 4 year old son had been painting some lovely flowers and had even added green grass and a blue waterfall to one of his pictures.
He also painted a lovely flower onto a card to send out to a family member we needed to thank for something. It actually worked out quite well for him as his little sister didn’t try to get in the way of his work at all. She was too busy having her own fun.
Our activities often move in different directions than those planned, but that’s the way we like it. There is nothing better than watching your own children’s imagination’s at work and seeing what they can come up with themselves, rather than just expecting them to follow the script each time.We still have a good few corks leftover, any suggestions on what we can do with them?
What a lovely idea to paint with them. I can't quite think of anything else you can use them for, but I'll pop back if I do x
#MMWBH
Thanks! I m thinking we could maybe make some kind of boat with them as they float?!?
Ooh cork painting sounds like a great idea! Loving how different their artwork is too! With toddlers arts and crafts rarely end the way you imagine it ending, but I think as long as they are having fun and exploring that is all that matters anyway really! 🙂 xx #letkidsbekids (Caroline aka Becoming a SAHM)
Thanks. It s great to look back on their work as well to see how far they ve come on. But yes it s all about exploring and having fun most importantly!
This is a fantastic idea. I have a huge bag of corks I could do this with too with the kids. Fab post and so creative. Thank you so much for linking up to Share With Me. I love to get new ideas for craft time with my two. #sharewithme
Thank you. It's amazing what you can do with things you might normally just throw into the bin! I hope you have a go too, tweet me a photo if you do!
Ah fantastic. Cork painting is a great idea, but I also like the way the children diverted off course too to explore things themselves. Love the paintings.
Thanks for linking #LetKidsBeKids
The best part of the craft was definitly seeing my little girl getting so animated rubbing her hands into the paint and slapping them onto the paper. Arts and crafts should always be fun even if you have to divert from what you originally set out to do.
It looks like you had lots of fun 🙂 I know what you mean about your blog encouraging you to get crafty. For me it is the same, blogging has really helped my motivation and skills 🙂
Blogging has definitly saved my sanity. It's great to be writing something again after spending 6 years at home with the kids with permanent writers block until now! What kind of things do you blog about?
What a fab friend saving all those corks for you! The results are fab too! Love it 🙂
x x
I know i m getting great support from friends and family with my blogging adventure. Glad you enjoyed the article!
My son is asking me for paints last week if I remember it correctly. I need to go and get him some as I cant lend him my acrylics. Its stains. I have this.. I am scared of colors actually. Of mess. We are renting and I am so scared that he would stain the house and we would need to pay so much for re-painting. This is the part that I need to overcome. Fear. I am so into colors and arts and yet I cant trust my son with it. I will try to buy one color at a time starting tomorrow. Ill start with red. Ill see where it'll bring me =) #sharewithme
Please dont be scared! You can buy some really good washable paints just check the label to make sure or ask in the art and hobby store. Why not take your painting activities with your son outside if you are worried about the mess inside? There is always an element of mess when you mix kids with paint but the benefits they get outweigh the clean up operation afterwards! Please let me know how you get on.
How sweet is your friend for saving those up for you and also what amazing artwork the little ones made from painting with them too! Thanks so much for sharing on #MMWBH xx
http://www.superbusymum.net
Thank you and I was glad to share!