One of the hardest things I have found in teaching my kids is to get them to think outside of themselves. And to be honest, it had reached the point that the “I wants” were on the edge of driving me to a bottle of klonopin. Don’t get me wrong, I love my kids. Absolutely adore them. But, when something as simple as a trip to the grocery store brings out an overstimulated, flopping like a fish on the floor, green eyed monster…well it is beyond time to do something about it.
After coming up with a plan on how to tackle the over-stimulation part of outings I started brainstorming ways to get Livia to start thinking about the needs of others. While some of them have worked, a lot of them she has reflected back to herself in that if she does this for someone else, then they will do that for her. Not exactly what I was going for.
This paper link pot of gold craft is another project that she picked out to do on Pinterest that was slightly modified to fit our needs.
I don’t know about you, but growing up I was always told that at the end of every rainbow was a pot of treasures filled with whatever you could wish for. So on this rainbow as we worked our way to the pot of gold we wrote down wishes. However, these wishes could be for anyone other than ourselves. They had to be wishes of good luck, love, and prosperity for other people.
Items Needed for the St. Patties Day Paper Link Craft:
- Construction Paper
- Glue Stick (or stapler)
- Scissors
- Pen and Paper
- Gold Glitter (or paint)
- Any St. Patties Decorations you desire – we used a four leaf clover thingy for the top chain (sorry don’t know what it is really called)
Once you have all your supplies gathered cut out the paper into strips, a wavy shape for the gold, and a pot. When cutting out your strips do not forget to also cut out a black strip to be able to connect the pot to the chain.
Then on a separate piece of paper (we used a note card) have your child think of one person for each link. While this step is not necessary, for very visual kids having a check list that they can cross off can help them feel a sense of accomplishment if it is a task they aren’t too fond of. Once your child has come up with who they want to think of and a list is made have them write one wish per person per chain.
Then glue together the pot and the gold. Just a light layer of glue will do.
Attach it to the backside.
Then cover the “gold” with glue and sprinkle on your glitter. Or paint with glitter glue.
Set this aside to dry while you create your paper links. As we linked each link together we talked about how we could work together like – like the links do – to make her wishes for other people come true.
Once all the paper links are connected, connect the last link (black paper) to the pot of gold and hang your creation up where everyone can admire it!