Paper Weapons and Masks

What’s a mom to do when the monsoon rains don’t let up?

1. Make sure the family has food and water for at least 3 days.
2. Entertain the kids indoors.

#2 has proven to be more difficult for me as G3 has gotten into paper art. I am no good with arts and crafts.

Last week, he excitedly showed me the paper shuriken (ninja star) he and his Grandpa made. He has gotten pretty good at googling these things. He showed me the video on How to Make a Paper Shuriken and asked me to help him make more. I tried… I really did! My shuriken just wouldn’t come out looking nice. I explained to him that some people find these things easier than others, this is one thing I’m not good at but I could get better with practice. We later figured out we were starting with a rectangle with the wrong proportions, i.e. half a bond paper torn length-wise instead of cross-wise. He stuck to his conclusion that it was better to make these things with Dad. This provided me temporary relief.

When classes were suspended yesterday, he thankfully chose to create weapons that were simper to make:

1. A staff – we simply rolled up pieces of paper and taped them together. When one part got limp, G3 started stuffing it with crumpled paper. We reinforced some parts with stiffer strips. Crude, but twirling this staff around made him happy.
2. Some kind of knife. His dad must have helped with the blade. I just helped with the ring at the tip of the handle. I was smugly proud of my ability to create this little ring for him.
3. The orange dagger in the picture above. He was following instructions for what he thought was a sword, hehe. He needed minimal assistance from me here.

He did ask for help making a paper airplane. Again, I tried. I got about 3-minutes into the 10-minute video before messing up. Only then did I realize we weren’t making a simple paper airplane. What simple airplane had a 10-minute how-to video? Duh. He had not shown me the intro to the video instructions. We were attempting to fashion a JAS 39 GRIPEN airplane out of paper. I don’t even know what that is. Some kind of fighter plane, I guess. I tried before lunch and I tried after lunch. I told him I should start with something easy and I could eventually progress to something as complicated as the JAS 39 GRIPEN airplane. This is on his Dad’s to-do list now.

Today, he wanted to make a mask. Aaaah, another item within my current competency level. I created a mask each for G3 and K2 and they colored it with oil pastel crayons. G3 colored his mask black while K2 made his half-brown and half-green, with hints of the orange paper peeking out, which he says is how he likes it.

Missions accomplished.