Oak Tree in an Acorn: Winter Crafting

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Winter Crafting

We have been making lots of crafts this winter. Here are a few of the girls' with their works of art:

Genevieve likes to work with alphabet beads and buttons. She strings them with pipe cleaners and asks for some clay so she can stamp the letters and shapes. Here is a picture of her wearing one of her creations...an alphabet choker necklace.

For a Christmas gift, Olivia made a pointer stick for her 1st grade teacher.

We painted a long wooden dowel, stuffed a glove with fiber-fill, attached the glove onto the dowel, and decorated the pointer with an alphabet bracelet and button ring.

Olivia also made friendship bracelets for her classmates and teachers at school. Since they are called Parkside Mustangs, we decided to spell out "Mustangs" in alphabet beads on each bracelets and add a jingle bell for a Christmas touch.

Olivia made four bracelets and I was proud of her for sticking with it and doing that many because it can get frustrating when the beads fall off the stretchy string. Several nights, I stayed up into the the wee hours finishing up the rest so the task would not seem so insurmountable to her. We might try something different next year, although, with one more year under her belt, she may be able to complete a few more. The kids in her class had fun wearing the bracelets the last day before the Christmas break.

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Why the title, "Oak Tree in an Acorn"?

Well, really it's all about perspective when raising the girls. It helps me to think about the grand scheme of parenting and remember that what we do now affects how our little acorns will grow. Like an oak tree, we want them to be strong in their words and deeds, be able to withstand life's storms, set and reach their goals, and be people that others can lean on and trust.

We have an oak tree planted in our yard that came from an acorn my dad planted in a pot. This acorn came from a huge oak tree that was planted in the backyard of my dad's childhood home. My dad's father also planted this tree from an acorn he found on his hunting lease in the early 1960's. Our tree is thus a family heirloom, a "family tree".

It was the year of Olivia's birth when we planted our little sapling. It looked so very sad that winter with no leaves; it was, basically, like a stick rooted in the ground. Five years later, though, it stands 9 feet tall, and we continue to nurture it and watch it grow. We hope one year it will produce acorns of its own, and we can continue to pass on this family heirloom. We hope to remember it's example of how each acorn has the potential to be an oak tree, and how our acorns, Olivia and Genevieve, will one day, with help from God, become mighty oak trees themselves.