Snail Mail Love for Little Ones Part 1

Having to deal with Covid-19 in the beginning was really rough. We have a daughter who was in pre-school and a son in high school. They both had a hard time adjusting to doing online classes and not being able to see their friends. It was the rainy part of the year for Washington so we weren’t able to do a lot of outdoor playing in the beginning. We had to find activities to do indoors.

One of the activities we were able to do with our daughter to keep her occupied was sending out mail to our friends and family. She was also able to send a few out to her classmates since they couldn’t see each other in person and she was also able to send a few to some residents of the assistant living home where my mother-in-law resides.

We made different types of cards and letters to send out. It also allowed her practice writing her name and basic greeting words. This is such a great activity to do together. We still do this during the summer months but on a smaller scale because we get to spend more time outdoors now. I hope this is an activity that will inspire her to continue writing mail as she’s growing up.

She loves walking to the mailbox to place her cards in and put the flag up. She also absolutely loves going to mailbox to find mail addressed to her.

Here are a few of the mail we worked on. She’s quite the artist and loves crafting so this was right up her alley.

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She painted coloring pages and addressed them and signed them. When folded up in to quarters it fits nicely into a 4 3/8″ x 5 3/4″ envelope. The coloring books in the ad below are our favorite for painting with watercolors because the pages are really thick. The pictures are very simple and big which makes it much easier for little ones to paint.

          

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My college aged son and his girlfriend also drew some pictures for our daughter to paint. They used thick watercolor paper and a black sharpie to draw the pictures. The papers were cut with a trimmer to 4″ x 5 1/4″. We later glued the painted pictures to colored cardstock that were cut to 4 1/4″ x 5 1/2″ and folded in half. We love using the watercolor papers below because of it’s thickness.

We later used the supplies and the same process to make other greeting cards. We made some for Easter, a few simple “Hi!” and “Hello!” ones, and we also let our daughter use her creative side to create drawings and paintings of her own. The cards were well received and she got a great response from family and friends.

What are some of the indoor activities you did to help keep yourself or your children busy during the beginning of lock down?

Beautiful Little Park

Today my son and I went to the closest city park and hid our painted rocks for others to find. My son, of course, couldn’t help but check out the playground.  I found it odd that there were no other children there. It is a Saturday and it was just after lunch. He had the playground all to himself for about 15 minutes.

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The heat may have been a bit unbearable for some but not for my child. My crazy son had on a pair of jeans and a long-sleeved shirt. He claimed he was fine. What is it with kids using shorts in the cold winter and long-sleeved shirts in the heat of summer?

We also took a little walk to the community garden portion of the park. I love being able to see all of the fruits, vegetables, and flowers popping up everywhere. Here are a few of the photos from today.

Do you have any beautiful flower or garden pictures you’d like to share with everyone? Please feel free to share your pictures in the comments below.

My Painted Rock

I love to paint! I have oodles and oodles of paints. It’s one of the many art supplies I love to hoard. I someday hope to take a painting course at our local college but in the meantime I use Pinterest and Bob Ross videos for ideas and tips. You have to love Bob Ross and his “happy little trees”.

Painted Rock

Here is my latest piece where I used very little of my oodles and oodles of collected paints. Yes, it’s a rock! It’s my first painted rock for a group in our community. The members of the group paint rocks and hide them for others in the community to find. Whoever finds the rocks can keep them or re-hide them for someone else to find. Such a great way to promote creativity and art within our community. Especially for the young children. A lot of people post pictures of the rocks they have been finding on the Facebook group page. It’s awesome to see all the great smiles and all the different artwork. I can’t wait to paint more rocks with my children and hide them.

I’ve created a Pinterest board just for painted rocks. So many ideas! I love it!