Valentine's Day Craft

My favorite crafts to do with the boys are ones that are as open-ended as possible. I got this idea for a Valentine garland from my friend Jodi. I told them to rip up or cut up tissue paper and put it in a bowl, and amazingly, even though Tommy was given license to use his scissors, he still chose to rip up the paper. Then they were to glue it to the card-stock hearts I had cut out.  

I was surprised that Benji was interested in doing this and actually completed two of his own hearts. He usually only participates in crafts long enough to spill something and then he's bored after that. But today he glued very intently and stuck lots of his little papers to the glue. It was the first project that I didn't have to "help" him finish. I liked Tommy's technique of balling the paper up before sticking it to the heart - it's fun watching him figure out alternate ways of doing things. So, the boys got their obligatory craft-time in, we found a way to spend a rainy morning, and now our eating area is festive!