Kiddie Krafts #1

I try to do some kind of craft with Carter every day. Partly because I want to foster his creative side. But mainly because it keeps me from going crazy all day. Today, we were bowling with a little plastic set my mom picked up for him at Walmart awhile back. And since his play area is all carpet, we were having trouble keeping the pins from falling down before he rolled the ball. Which gave me the idea to make a homemade bowling lane for him. Nothing fancy, but it did the trick.

What you need:
    * Rectangle piece of cardboard
    * Black and White paint (I used Crayola Tempera Paint because that is what I had on hand)
    * Pencil

First, at one end of the cardboard, I used the bottom of one of the bowling pins to as my guide for the circles. For the back row, I lined up four so I could determine the spacing. On the other end, I drew nine triangles in a "V" shape. 

Next, I painted the circles and the triangles black. 

Carter was making a masterpiece of his own while I was painting.

After the paint dried, I added the numbers to the circles. Not only is this tons of fun to play with, we can work on his counting at the same time. {Side-note: right now he can count to 2 :P}

Voila! Let dry - it took about 15 minutes to dry completely for me (and that was the longest 15 minutes ever with a toddler screaming "I bowl, I bowl"). I didn't do anything fancy to mine, because I let Carter add his own decorative touch to it later. But you could totally paint the cardboard a different color, or add a funky design. And I am aware that my arrow is not even...I threw this together in 15 minutes, so I was okay with the imperfection.

He had so much fun - for 15 minutes - bowling and setting up the pins. 

And if you were wondering what the finished product of Carter's painting looked like......

I know.....he is so the next Picasso, right?

Happy Krafting!