CityMom asked:
Here’s another nitty gritty question: what is in your arts and crafts cabinet? I think that this is an area in which we are lacking, and it would be good to have some things on hand for rainy summer days. Any website suggestions for craft supplies?
A while back I wrote about Waldorf art supplies and whether they were worth the money. A commenter recommended Discount School Supply as a good source for non-Waldorf materials—and I just realized that’s the same company running an ad in my lefthand sidebar at the moment. Scroll down and check them out!
My supply cupboard is pretty basic:
• Paper (White copy-machine paper for drawing, as it’s cheaper to buy in large quantities than real drawing paper; notebook paper; construction paper; and I stock up on card stock [ba dum bum] when Michael’s has a good sale, because it is so great for mini-book covers, bookmarks, paper dolls, etc etc etc. Jane has a million uses for card stock.)
• Crayons
• Prismacolor pencils (can’t live without ’em)
• Watercolors
• Markers
• Scissors
• Glue (sticks and Elmer’s)
• Stickers (I bought a big grab-bag of Mrs. Grossman’s stickers cheap at Timberdoodle seven years ago and we are still using them!)
• Sculpey
• Foam shapes (Found a tub on sale at Michael’s.)
• Holy cards
• Yarn
• Usborne drawing books—check my archives under “Art” for a list of our favorites.
For awesome liturgical-year-themed craft ideas, check out my pal Alice’s website. She is a crafting genius.
CityMom, I’ll have to save part two of your question for another post—baby just woke up!
(And I haven’t forgotten about the promised language arts post, either. Still to come.)
I used to own a small craft store – we still have a wide range of “leftovers” available. Not all are what I would call necessary, but it does make for interesting creations adn the kids have tried some things they wouldn’t normally, just because it was there.
I am not Catholic…but I find all your art stuff to be beautiful!!! 🙂
What are Holy Cards?
But what about the two year old? I have a three year old and she is just beginning to not “dump and run” (the crayons, pencils, markers, etc.) or put stickers all over her body. Are your art supplies accessible to all?
Jennifer
Two other art suppliers I like are Miller’s Pads and Paper (http://www.millerpadsandpaper.com)-they have good prices on paper and some lyra brand supplies. Also, Adonis Press (http://www.adonispress.org) has Waldorf lesson books as well as art supplies, cheaper than Paper, Scissors, Stone on most things last time I checked.
Another great round-up of resources, Lissa–and thanks for the kind mention!
Thanks for the suggestions! We went to Michael’s yesterday (it’s a bit of a jaunt from our “little seaside town”). We met grammie & grandpa for a “fancy” mother’s day lunch at Wendy’s. To make a long story short, Grammie gave each child $5 for a “toy”. In an effort to prepare for homeschooling, I convinced them to spend the $15 on craft supplies. We bought some animal foam stickers. We spent an hour this morning (before school) writing books and “illustrating” with the stickers and embellishments by the boys. We covered creative writing and even snuck in some Bible study(Michael made a Noah’s Ark picture, to “teach people about God”). WOW! I think I will ‘really’ be able to do this ‘homeschooling’ thing. A notch has been added to my confidence level. THANKS for the inspiration!