Teepee Time !
As we were hoping and anticipating the arrival of our grandchildren this summer, we started to think of fun things to do with them months earlier.
When it comes to crafting, Terry is able to choose the larger projects while I generally stick to smaller, more detailed craft ideas.
So I wasn’t all that surprised when he found some tall saplings out in the countryside and cut a few down to bring home for his surprise “Teepee” project.
The boys have been learning quite a bit about indigenous peoples and we knew that the museum had wonderful displays for teaching too. So it seemed a natural fit to create our own teepee and have the boys paint it.
Several weeks ago, Terry actually purchased painting tarps and sewed them together to make the covering. Wow!
Then he had to practice setting up the teepee so that it would be safe and large enough.
Next up, Terry had to teach the boys how to use the paint to achieve the brightest colours and how to wash their brushes in between each pigment to prevent a muddy colour mix.
The Royal Alberta Museum displays showed us many typical teepee designs used by different tribes and we gave the boys the option of trying to replicate some of these ideas or to do ‘their own thing’. Option number two won out…ha ha ha.
I think they did a great job with their waterfalls, hearts, people, and other designs and “Papa” painted the hard to reach top with a pretty sun design.
The teepee floor (another paint tarp) was then covered with a soft, moving blanket for comfort, some lawn chair paddings, a couple of ‘children’s chairs’, books, and toys.
Now they will have a nice place to hang out and get out of the hot sun when they want to for the rest of their last week.
We sure love doing projects with these artistic wee ones of ours.