George wishes he had this boat

As a rule I do not do crafts. I am not creative nor gifted or otherwise inclined to do artsy-crafty things. However, because I have children who are school-aged I am compelled to bring some creativity to their schooling. Thankfully Michael and Amy are able to do most of that stuff on their own now, but then there’s my third grader, Rebecca.

Sweet Rebecca is studying the Revolutionary War and she is supposed to make a diorama of anything that happened during that time period. Um, that’s a bit open-ended, don’t you think? Anyway, she picked “George Washington Crossing the Delaware.”

Now normally this type of assignment falls under the category of, “Let’s wait to do that on Saturday when Dad can help you” because Sean loves that kind of stuff. Any time he can incorporate Lego’s and schoolwork he is all for it. But Sean has to work this Saturday so the diorama help falls squarely on my shoulders.

I asked Rebecca to gather all the supplies she’d need to make her masterpiece. She got construction paper, Legos, pipe cleaners, glue and crayons, as well as the largest shoebox I’ve ever seen. It’s the one that held Michael’s new sneakers. Size 11.5. I am more accustomed to working with smaller boxes (less to fill, obviously) but she was sold on the humongous orange Nike box and could not be convinced to use anything else. Ugh.

Rebecca went to work building the Lego ship while I glued blue construction paper all over the inside of the shoe box. That much I can handle. Then we cut out waves and glued them in. After that she put the boat in (I did show her the traditional picture of Washington crossing the Delaware and she agreed to take out the cannons and door on her Lego boat but insisted on leaving the steering wheel) and voilà:




Now, this will not win any awards, but it was done primarily by Rebecca and, most importantly, it is finished!

From now on I’m checking out Sean’s Saturday work schedule before assigning craft projects.