Maya said something yesterday that totally made me smile. She sometimes reports to me what she is "into now," with an understanding that her interests and likes in food, tv characters, and clothing shifts. Yesterday, from the back seat of the car, she pronounced: "Ima, do you know what things I am into now? Now, I am into Dora, Michael Jackson, and Parsha!"
Maya has been looking forward to this Parsha since we began our projects. One of the things that Maya used to be very "into" was the musical "Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat." So much so that this was the theme of her fourth birthday party.
There were multi-colored snacks:
The kids made Joseph's coat from pre-cut pieces of felt:
Most importantly, Andy dressed up as Joseph!
But, Joseph's coat seems to provide endless crafting possibility. This week, we will make Joseph's coat our of colored tissue paper and Joseph sugar cookies.
The idea for the tissue-paper coat comes from yet again from a Christian website. The story of Joseph and his coat seemed like a particular favorite for Christian Sunday Schools. I had some vague idea that Joseph was a significant character in Christian faith more than others in Genesis but I wasn't sure why or how. After some googling, I now understand that Joseph is viewed (like many biblical heroes) to prefigure Jesus. In particular, Joseph's coat is understood to prefigure the robe that was stripped from Jesus. Apparently, the parallels between the two characters are many. Well - lucky for me - that makes for some good Joseph projects.
The sugar cookies were simple. I found a cookie cutter (yes, a Christmas angel, I think) that looked like it was wearing a coat and then we got decorating.
You might be able to tell which ones I did and which ones the girls did...
The tissue paper project was easy and fun. I prepared small squares of colored tissue paper and the girls just started pasting them onto their Joseph template which I printed from DLTK's Crafts for Kids.
One of the hardest parts about doing these projects is for me to "let go" and not dictate to them that they do it the "right way." I think that I am managing this by allowing myself to do every project in my own type A way so that I can see how it is "supposed to look" and let the girls do it in their own messy, disorganized, chaotic, out-of-the-lines way. I have to remind myself to breathe many times in the process.
No comments:
Post a Comment