A Paper Autumn

Here in Point Hope we are too far North for any kind of trees...or most anything that grows more than two inches off the ground. As a result Fall is very different than what we are used to down in Utah.

Here are a couple of activities we have done so we could enjoy, at least to some degree, the joys of trees:

Thankfulness Tree

Last year when we were missing trees we decided to make our own. We used packing paper from various mail-orders that we've made for the trunk and limbs. The greenery was "donated" by the school. We also missed fall colors, so we made leaves out of colored paper and wrote on them things that we're thankful for. One thing that we're all thankful for now is our thankfulness tree. It is happy to have a tree in our house..

Jumping in the Leaves

 Every kid loves jumping in a big crunchy pile leaves...and most adults for that matter.

I spread out a long piece of packing paper across the floor, gave the girls some markers, and set them loose to color me an Autumn. After that we tore the paper in to small leave-sized pieces. They thought it was great, especially Ellora who enjoys ripping up books and the such. Then we piled them up and went crazy throwing rolling and jumping. It wasn't quite the same as the real thing but we had a lot of fun.

Monday Activity, Boxes

Every kid loves boxes! and we have more than our share of them considering most of the things we have in our home, including our food came directly to us in the mail. Here are some of the fun activities that we have done with our boxes:

Jumbo Building Blocks

I took all of our recent diaper boxes, emptied them and taped them shut. They made great building blocks. We made towers, stairs, forts, and choo-choo trains. They are light weight and even Ellora enjoyed carrying them around and stacking them. They were a little tipsy when the girls began to climb on them, though. You may consider using them to store stuff in and then letting the kids play with them.  That way you could save on space and make them sturdier for climbing. I like my sisters idea of storing baby clothes in diaper boxes because then you can find them easily and you can store each size in a different box.

(Just so you know, this is not an endorsement for a particular type of diapers. We actually ordered a different brand but they sent us these by mistake.)

 

Play House:

 This is our play house that we made from a large box. I taped the top flaps up together to make it taller. I cut differently shaped windows, and some with shudders, a mail box and a door. In the door and cut a circle with one side still connected for a door knob.

After the girls began to grow tired of it I gave Chalyse a marker and let her decorate it. She loved being able to color on the walls and ceiling.
Doesn't every kid love to color on the walls? It's like a dream come true!

We also have done some fun things to recycle packing paper. Stay tuned...