As E. is into sea animals and we haven’t had a craft project in ages, I though I would put together this easy jellyfish craft for the girls. I was keeping my fingers crossed throughout the preparation so they would both enjoy it.

What I prepared:

• 2 paper plates (the bottom was cut off in a semi-circle line)
• two colours of paint (pink and green; baby paint for Baby L. would have been better)
• 2 paintbrushes
• 2 pairs of googly eyes
• 2 colours of yarn (pink and green)
• glue
• scissors (2 pairs)
• marker (black)
• hole puncher (I punched the paper plates before we started the activity, so it wasn’t around)

After nap time I put everything on the dining table and placed Baby Sis in her high chair. She was quite excited. E, with a curious smile on her face, settled down next to us. I told them easy instruction as we went along because of Baby Sis.

Like: Here is your paintbrush. Put it in the paint. It’s green. E. has pink. Touch the yarn. This is glue. I’ll put a dab of glue on the paper. etc.

First, we painted the paper plates. ( I used a hairdryer to speed the drying process up)

Baby Sis tasted it a bit and wiped it in her hair.

Then I told them we needed to cut pieces of the yarn.

Baby Sis enjoyed touching and pulling the yarn apart.

E. was great with the scissors and cut quite many stings which were more than less the same length.

On behalf of Baby L. I was cutting the yarn. She took great interest in the scissors.

We halved the yarn pieces, the part which formed a loop went through the punched hole on the paper plate. Then the other end of the string was pulled through the loop. These stings made up the jellyfish’s tentacles.

Finally, we glued on the eyes and drew a mouth. E. did it all by herself I worked for L. while she was busy with something (fingering the yard, trying to open the scissors, putting the googly eyes in her mouth so I needed to be really watchful)

Baby Sis decided to decorate her jellyfish with the marker a little more so E. added some spots and eyebrows to hers.

We displayed the happy jellyfish on our living-room door. When Daddy came home he immediately noticed the lovely creations.

This activity was absolutely great for both girls:

1. At long last we had a CRAFTY afternoon.
2. L. had great SENSORY experience.
3. E. practised fine moter skills like CUTTING with scissors and threading.
4. L. learnt the word jellyfish and listened to new INSTRUCTIONS.
5. The girls had fun TOGETHER.