Monday, May 24, 2010

The Eel Deal

I'm back with a little more motherly advice. OK, so you've had your spring/summer baby and your birthday parties are in the bag. Good going. You're on the road to easy street. 

Fast forward to 4th grade. The year of the animal research project. 

When your baby comes home shouting, "I chose an eel!" Don't roll your eyes and mutter, "what the heck were you thinking?!" be discouraged. An eel may be the most boring animal in the kingdom, but boring animal= not much info= easy research. You'll be done in no time. And then she can spend the rest of the week getting creative with her project. 

Instead of just drawing a picture of the eel in its habitat, she can get out the new basket of paints you scored at last weekend's rummage sale for $1...




and get busy painting....


and crafting and hot gluing in her artist studio until she's made a model like this. Extra bonus points if she's a ballerina because she'll have plenty of those lovely hair nets lying around to add authenticity.


And then, instead of making a ho-hum word search or crossword puzzle to teach her classmates about her animal, she can create a REAL game and call it, what else...

Eel or No Eel?

10 comments:

Melissa said...

you are brilliant.....errr she is brilliant....this underwater eel number is brilliant! wise words...ok so i don't choose the kangaroo i choose the eel!! i'll keep that in mind- have avoided it with the first two ...but it will be the lovely mad little one that will come home with the eel project- bless her!
m x

Anonymous said...

Holy cow! You're good.

I probably have bought a pack of gummy worms, a plastic pail and sent her on her way.

My kids are so lucky.

knack said...

oh my word ....what a hoot!!

you are great mom.....and your little one is a creative visionary :)

have a beautiful monday!

xo

Bridget said...

Oh wow, she did such a great job!!! HAHA! Eel or No Eel :D

liz said...

I'm impressed! I wouldn't have come up with anything that creative.

Kerri said...

Wow! Great project!

I had to look up where we are going on vacation...and it's Massanutten. We've never been there before...but the in-laws got a great deal, so that's where we're going! (oh yea, and we've never gone on a week vacation with the in-laws and cousins, etc!)
Have you been there? You can be honest if it's not all that! :)

sloan said...

LOVE this diorama ... the kid made an eel look adorable - I mean, 'nuff said - that's amazing!

Olivia said...

Oh my this is darling! I love your family pics on the post below! Stop by and say hi when you get a chance,
hugs,
Olivia

1 Funky Woman said...

Oh my way cute! I'd play that game! Your daughter is amazingly talented I adore her Eel home! She will definitely get an A on that! Oh BTW my son would pick the eel, he has before, but his was not as good!

Never done broccoli before, my husband thought he'd take a stab at it! We'll see, its just starting to grow!

{cindy} said...

Great project!!
I love to see kids creativity shine through!! They can make the cutest stuff can't they??
Enjoy the night!