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A Modern Tree & a Math Lesson

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Simple is beautiful. I still don’t think I fully understand what it means to simplify, but what I do know is that the prettiest things I’ve ever seen aren’t complicated. Whether it’s wardrobe, decor, art, food–simple just always seems better.

I was perusing instagram this week and stumbled upon a friend’s craft and just loved it. It was modern and just…lovely. & I instantly knew what I was going to do with it. It was going to be a teaching tree! I used only things I could find around the house for this craft, and spent a nice little chunk of time doing this with my three year old. Here’s what we made–she’s so proud!

WHAT YOU NEED:

  • random paper (mine was a bunch of really old stuff from my I-used-to-scrapbook collection)
  • paper to mount the tree on
  • scissors
  • glue
  • glitter (if you’re feeling adventurous)

I pre-cut the strips of paper for her, so all she had to do was cut the lengths. I knew my OCD would be more controlled if we started out this way. :) Once she cut the strips we lined them up, making sure no patterns were two in a row and they went from shortest on top, to longest on the bottom. This actually took quite a while for her to do, but it was fun!

Then, after she saw what we were going to make, I wanted to test her. I dumped off the strips and made her line them back up all by herself. Then we talked about “centering” and making the tree look like a balanced tree, not lopsided.

Then, all by herself, she started doing math while she was gluing. Three down, six to go, three and six is…AWESOME!

But my favorite part isn’t even the tree. It’s her handwritten name, which she’s just begun doing herself this month. Oh, the joy of learning AND crafting!

To hang it, I just wrapped some baker’s twine around the glass & taped it to the back of the matted print that is in the frame. I took two clothespins and used a scrapbooking sticker border (valentines, actually) that happened to be about the width of the clothespin. Talk about an easy way to make clothespins cute!

Wishing you a happy, handmade holidays!


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