Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Atypical Art Supplies

Do you have a kid that is that kid in Sunday school who much prefers to peel the crayons rather than actually color with the crayons? I do. And yes, he's also that kid who prefers to make all portraits of Jesus and his disciples in black. Dark, scribbly black.

As I was cleaning out our craft bins and getting organized for the upcoming school year, I collected oodles of broken crayons that weren't being used anymore. Rather than toss them, I ask the boys if they wanted to peel them for me.

"If I peel them will I get in trouble?" I guess they've asked that question a time or two at church. I assured them it was okay and told them we were going to do something neat with the broken and peeled pieces.
My boys - my energy-filled, always-moving, enjoy-being-loud boys - sat still and peeled crayons for over an hour. An hour. Believe me, as I noticed they were nearing the end of the pile I ransacked every possible place in my home that more crayons could possibly be so that I could keep them quietly busy at the table.
After peeling and breaking the crayons into tiny tid-bits, the boys placed them in muffin tins and I set them on the back deck to cook in the sun. With temps in the mid 90's the crayons were a melted, swirly puddle in a short time.

I let them cool inside for a while and when I snapped them out of the muffin tin, my boys were enthralled to color with "cool new rainbow crayons." And to think, I almost pitched all this waxy fun during my cleaning frenzy.
Grady is out of town this week so I've been pretty casual with making dinner each night. I'm fairly certain my boys thought I'd really lost it when I called them to the dinner table and then told them they needed to paint their dinner before they could eat it.
I mixed food coloring and water in small bowls, gave each boy a paintbrush and a slice of bread, and told him to have at it! They painted and designed and took their sweet time making their dinner colorful.
After both sides were full of colors and pictures, I popped the bread in the toaster and served it with butter and honey. "Yuuummmmm. This is the best tasting bread ever! My rainbow is very good!"
The only problem is that at lunch today my boys asked if they could color their bread with their new "rainbow crayons." That idea, as pretty as it may look, was shot down.

4 comments:

  1. Ahh yes - the crayon peelers. I have one of those - and her name is Olivia :) We've done the crazy crayons in the oven, but with these hot temps - outside is a great idea!! I love the painted bread - although not sure it would show up on my whole grain bread -- shhh my kids don't know there is white wheat.

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  2. I have always meant to make the swirly crayons & having them melt outside is such a GREAT idea! And also, great idea for making dinner pretty AND fun! Love the painted bread! Girl, there is a crafty bone in you yet!

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  3. Seriously??? This is why I don't let my kids read everyone elses blogs!!! You are so much FUN!!! Is there ever boredom in your house? So creative Sarah!!!!

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