You Pinspire Me
Ah, October. We go straight from pumpkin pies, thankfulness, & warm fuzzies to jack’o’lanterns, frights, and spooky stories. Mysteries abound. I myself have gotten caught up in “MidSomer Murders” on Netflix, a British who-dunnit with a run of 15 series of 3-5 episodes each. It’s fantastic – it combines the picturesque English countryside & idyllic small towns with multiple murders & plenty of intrigue every episode.
The kids, for their part, have been watching Blue’s Clues – and have gotten so into searching for clues with Steve & Blue that they begged me to help them make magnifying glasses so that they could find clues, too! And, well, how can I resist? I dug into the blue box and grabbed some old pie boxes from Thanksgiving and a heavier piece of corrugated cardboard. All I needed was a ziplock baggie and some hot glue, and we had a magnifying glass!
I picked up this awesome set of nesting circle cookie cutters at Dollarama which have been great for so many different baking & craft activities so far. I traced 1 large circle on the pie box, and then slightly smaller circle inside. I cut that out, traced that shape, and cut out the second as well. I then traced the circle onto the ziplock baggie & glued that inside the two circle cutouts.
I really should have made the circles into a Q shape while I was cutting them, but I forgot entirely, so I also glued a little piece sticking out of the circle – this is to help secure the circle to the handle a bit better.
I cut 2 matching sticks out of the corrugated cardboard & glued the circle, sticky-out-piece down, to the first handle, added more glue, then pressed the second handle onto the first. If you use a hot glue gun, it’s ready to be played with almost immediately.
And so we set off on an adventure in our neighbourhood with our magnifying glasses at the ready. We identified leaves – Hendrik postured that since the leaves were turning yellow, it must be fall! (Not a bad conclusion, I’d say!) We also found Halloween decorations on the sidewalk, and Hendrik thought that this might mean that A) it was windy last night and B) Halloween is coming! Right he was on both counts! It makes our walks much more interesting and helps the kids engage their surroundings in a way that I wouldn’t have guessed before!
What kind of mystery do you & your family go for in the months when the leaves start falling, the wind whistles through the trees, & sky turns dark before supper?
Disclaimer: I’m a part of the Netflix StreamTeam & I receive special perks in exchange for my posts. All of the above are my original thoughts, ideas, & words.
Jenn vanOosten
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ohh..that is a neat craft! I must make this for my son. He will love it! As for the mysteries, he is so into watching Busytown mysteries lately 🙂