BEEing A Mom: Bumblebee Rocks

I have a confession: I'm not a "crafty" mama. I wish I were. I admire the creative and cute crafts I find on websites and in books and magazines. But often I read the craft's directions and either don't understand how to complete them or think they will require more effort than I'm willing to devote to them. I usually opt to take Hayden to the zoo or a museum rather than work on a craft. This is where Hayden's preschool teacher, Miss Ashlee, has been a blessing. Each day Miss Ashlee coordinates a craft for the kids in the class. So I'm reassured I'm not depriving Hayden of opportunities to explore his artistic abilities.

But every once and a while, I have a moment when I desire to tackle a craft. This morning I had one of those moments.

After breakfast, I thumbed through a couple of my preschool books until I finally found instructions on a craft I thought I could complete with Hayden. The craft: making bumblebees out of rocks. I quickly perused the directions and thought, "I can do this."

Minutes later, we embarked on an adventure behind our house to find flat rocks to be used as the bumblebees' bodies. After collecting several rocks, we laid them out on the patio table. As I reread the craft's directions, I struggled to understand what to do after cleaning and drying the rocks. The book did not include any pictures, and as I much I tried, I could not comprehend what to do next.

So in a rare moment for me, I decided we would abandon the book and make the bumblebee rocks using our own creativity and the supplies we had on hand. For the next hour, Hayden and I shared a delightful time together painting rocks and putting the finishing touches on them.


And even though our masterpieces may not be worthy of being included in a book or magazine, we were thrilled about how they turned out.


Throughout the afternoon, Hayden discovered many creative ways to play with the bumblebee rocks. My favorite was a new twist to the game of "tag." In our living room, we took turns being the tagger with the bee. My son made the sound of a bee buzzing as he chased me around the coffee table until he finally caught up with me and rather than "tagging" me, he used the bee to "sting" me.

Perhaps I will try to be a "crafty" mama a little more often now!