Art Project: Make Steering Wheels From Paper Plates!
Got a car-obsessed, truck-loving kid?
I do.
There are cars and trucks ALL OVER my house…
and steering wheels.
‘Steering wheels?’ You may ask…
Why yes, steering wheels.
They are really paper plates, but the minute they are cut and decorated with symbols, they become…
steering wheels.
My son LOVES them and HIS FRIENDS do too.
We have All car brands represented, and he likes to pick a favorite-of-the-day to take along with him in the car. He ‘drives’ in the back seat, we keep extra steering wheels in the car for friends and THEY drive in the back seat too, in our car.
Ahhh, imagination 
How do you make a steering wheel? Well, we’ve done research here in our house (trust me), and we’ve found the best site to find ALL DIFFERENT BRANDS of cars and thus, pictures of steering wheels, is CarMax. Click on whatever ‘kind’ of car steering wheel you want (Toyota, Chevy,etc.), click on a specific car, and there will be pictures of it,
Click on ‘More Photos’ under each car and there is always a close up of the steering wheel.
Isn’t that cool?
So now you know,
and you’re the Cool Mom
Why Did I Buy That Toy?!
NOTE TO SELF: Do Not, Repeat, Do Not, Buy your son the Whack-A-Mole Tower,
Or Any Other Toy that involves Hammering, Pounding, and Bells
And let it be set up in your living room…
Next year. Learn from your mistakes.
Traffic Signs- Great Summer Fun!
I discovered a great summer fun toy!
TRAFFIC SIGNS!
Rallye Traffic Signs can be found at Toys R Us,
They are great for indoor and outdoor play,
they are weather proof,
and you can just fill the base with water for stability!
They are just $9.99 at Toys R Us.
We got the stop sign, the yield sign and the railroad crossing!
Kids can use them with their bikes or tricycles or powerwheels or skateboards or scooters…
It’s a little summer fun-
I’m passing along
ENJOY!
Our Favorite-Stuffed-Animal Crisis
After a perfect evening celebrating our wedding anniversary last Saturday night, my husband and I drove out to my parents’ home on Sunday morning, 35 minutes away, to pick up our Little Man.
My son loves his ‘pajama parties’ at my folks and always brings a few essentials besides clothes and pjs: his favorite blanket, his favorite pillow and most importantly, his favorite stuffed animal: Winnie-the-Pooh.
He has been sleeping with this Poohbear since he can remember. Well, not actually… we have replaced ‘this Pooh’ many times due to vomit, bits of food, mucus (ugh, I hate even typing that word), saliva. I tried to wash him one time in the washing machine, that went okay, but then I put him in the dryer and he came out smelling burnt: don’t try this at home.
But his current Pooh, which he thinks he’s been sleeping with since the day he was born, is always around and frankly, has reached the status of a good friend.
That said, we had a wonderful Sunday, played outside and were busy with games til bedtime. Ahh, a great weekend.
We were putting our Little Man to bed when he asked,
“Where’s Pooh?”
“I’ll find Pooh,” and I went downstairs, scanned the living room, the playroom, the kitchen, his bathroom. ‘He must be downstairs in the basement’ I thought, and I quickly trotted downstairs to the basement playroom, which is ALWAYS where things are when I can’t find them.
I looked around… No Pooh.
My throat started to feel tight. No Pooh.
“Pooh must be in the car.” I yelled up. He had to be. He had to be. Please be in the car. Please be in the car.
My husband ran out to the car, came back in and our eyes met, “Pooh’s not there; we left him out at your parents.”
My heart was up in my throat by this time, all the while I’m thinking,
“We couldn’t have left the most important stuff animal in the world at my parents. That would be such a rookie mistake, laughable even.”
But no one was in a laughing mood. We ran upstairs to my son’s hopeful eyes. Even he was thinking, “We couldn’t have left Pooh at Nanny and Pop’s.”
I called my parents. They hadn’t seen Pooh. Then my mom’s voice broke,
“Oh no, we left him in my car; that’s why we haven’t seen him and it didn’t occur to any of us that he’d been left.”
In the next 5 minutes there was crying, not tantrum crying or ‘I’m just making a point and I’ll get over this crying’; it was ‘I am so incredibly sad’ crying. My son has never been without his Pooh to sleep. A phone call later and my husband was in the car, my dad was rushing, with Pooh in hand, in his car; they would meet halfway.
So I rocked my 4-year-old son and sang to him as he calmed down, knowing that Pooh was on his way. I hadn’t stopped mentally banging my head against the wall with thoughts of ,”Idiot! Rookie mistake!” until we got the call about 20 minutes later that the exchange had been made. My husband and dad pulled their cars along side each other, Pooh was handed out one car window to the other outstretched arm.
Little Man said he was tired and climbed into bed. He insisted I stay with him until Pooh came home, so I got a pillow, laid on the floor beside his bed and we talked.
He stopped talking and looked over at me to make sure I was there and his eyes started to get heavy, fluttered a little and he fell asleep. I just looked at him. It’s beautiful to watch your son fall asleep (ah, in more ways than one). Man, he made it look easy, even after so much turmoil.
I heard the front door open and went to the top of the stairs. “Shhhhh,” my husband handed me Pooh without a word. I tiptoed back into my son’s room, leaned down, nudged him a little and said, “Here’s Pooh, he’s home.” Little Man opened his eyes just long enough to smile and exclaim in a whisper, “Pooh!” He snuggled up to the worn, aged, silly-old-bear, and went immediately back to sleep.
I wish all problems were that easy to solve…
My husband and I looked at each other downstairs: 45 minutes of crisis mode, tears, mentally bashing our lack of awareness- UGH. I still can’t believe WE ALL FORGOT POOH!
But: watching my Little Man fall asleep, laughing while comparing ourselves to Meg and Hamilton Swan in ‘Best In Show’ (“Where is Busy Bee? We have to find Busy Bee!”)-
to our son and all little ones having the ability to fall into a restful sleep almost instantly… priceless.
An abbreviated version of this can be read over at DC Metro Moms Blog.
A GREAT 4-YEAR-OLD QUOTE
“Mommy, I love books… and cars.”
You really can’t ask for much more than that, from a 4-year-old boy.
USE ANYTHING FOR FUN!
This is my coffee table.
I’ll actually call it my tea table because I don’t drink coffee.
But when you tape some paper on it and get out some crayons and markers,
It becomes a map for cars to drive on,
or a picture to create and color,
or a kingdom for action figures to live in.
It doesn’t take much to stimulate a little one’s imagination.
I got a huge pad of this big paper from our local art supply store for $5.00. Priceless!
THE TAO OF FINGER PAINTING
Anyone who has visited my blog in the past month knows,
Springtime is finally here in DC. And what better way to kick-start Spring, than a good finger-painting session.
Finger painting is fun, it’s inexpensive and it’s easy to clean up.
Go outside and paint, find some grass and paint the grass too.
All finger paints wash off with water, maybe a little soap- that’s it.
My son and I always start with strictly the fingers, then move to hands and then…
feet!
A few thoughts:
The Tao of Finger Painting
You can’t be mad and finger paint. You can’t be stressed and finger paint. You unconsciously relax when finger painting.
My son always has a grin on his face when he’s finger painting. So do I.
There is something really rewarding about making a picture with your hands…
Mixing colors and creating new shades never gets old…
No one gets old if they finger paint.
I LOVE BOXES/TOYS!
I am so proud of this microwave oven that my son and I made-
I’m posting it!
Wow, has my life come to this?
I guess it has because I’m thrilled with this. I am so knee-deep into motherhood that I am actually watching my artistic progression when it comes to these box transformations.
I am a painter, albeit a beginner. And when I see my advancement in the art of construction paper, a gluestick and markers, I think to myself, ‘Pick up that paintbrush!’
I’m kidding… but not totally.
BOX CARS… PRICELESS!
After an over-scheduled day of school, a playdate, and a birthday party – my husband, my son, my sister-in-law, her twins and myself walked from All Fired Up, the twins’ birthday party site, across the street to Café Deluxe (I love this place for ‘dining’ with kids) for a quick, but nice 5:30pm dinner in Bethesda.
The first family we saw as we walked in was one of my son’s friends from his ‘3’s’ class. After all the hellos and smiles, his mother asked me, “Where do you get the cars in your playroom that I’ve been hearing about?” Her son has been talking about them for a week.
I started grinning from ear to ear and told her: they are boxes.
She and her husband started laughing a little and both said, “What?”
Yes, they are boxes. And this isn’t the first time our ‘cool playroom cars’ have been brought up. Kids, especially boys, LOVE these boxes… I mean cars.
The idea for these toys began with my son just playing with the box his carseat came in. We quickly made it into a car with a cut-out door. My husband added paper plates for wheels and a steering wheel. I then made a gearshift from a paper towel roll and a tissue box after my son matter-of-factly commented on the need for one. Lastly, we got a little fancy and added handles to the doors that were lying around in my husband’s tool box.
Whoa- one more important thing: you must make a key out of cardboard and have a slit to put it into = ignition key.
We made a second one for friends and playdates. My son and his friends will drive to the beach, stop at the gas station, get in each others’ cars to give each other a ride or just drive around the neighborhood. Ahh, pretend play… I love it!
I love that my son and his friends get so much enjoyment out of these boxes, that they are using their minds, that they are even being a little creative. I love that my son didn’t even want to take the time to decorate them… His response- “Why? They have wheels.”
I’m another mom chiming in how cool it is to make things and play with… stuff! Imagination is cool. And it’s free. A great DC Metro Mom post last month talked about how important imagination is.
So, get a box and see what happens;
gather up some paper plates and enjoy!
Next project – my son wants a plane… that might be a tough one!
This can also be read at DC Metro Moms; it’s a great site, I’m a contributor!
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Design Credit:
