In my last "Family Fun Magazine" there was an idea for a "Caped Cute-sader" that I thought looked adorable for the boys to hand out as their valentines to their friends. We bought a box of special Valentine's Day Tootsie Pops, and I already had card stock scraps in multiple colors so I just used what we had. We went online to the website to print the template for the cape and mask (LOVE that they offer templates for these projects!). We did the first couple and gave them to the grandparents, telling them how super we thought they were. Since they were easy enough to make, we bought more lollipops and decided to make them for both their preschool classes.
Joshua helped me trace a few, but since I work much faster than he does I was able to finish most of them as he did a couple. But, we were still working together, and I really wanted to focus on getting them written out. He cut a couple of them out himself, too, which was great. It takes a lot of concentration for him to cut, and these are good skills to have. I did all of Caleb's and some of his as we sat together working on them one afternoon. Then using a single-hole punch Mamaw gave us, we punched a hole in the cape. Afterward, using a black marker, we made circles for the eyes of the mask.
I then drew a line for Joshua to write his friends' names at the top, and I worked with him as he wrote each one. I was constantly saying "SMALLER! You don't have much space! Keep your letters closer together!" And, I'll be honest in saying that I got frustrated with him. We'd do a few names and then we'd put it aside to come back to later when he was more "fresh" and I wasn't aggravated. He wrote his own name on each one with relative ease. He sometimes writes his 's' backwards, but by the end of these, he remembered each and every time to write it correctly.
Since Caleb is only three, I didn't require him to write his classmates' names, but I still asked him to sign his own name at the bottom of each one. I also didn't ask him to help cut them. He did a great job of signing his name, and he picked out a little Valentine heart sticker for each one and helped put them on (I bought a whole book full of these stickers for $1 at ACMoore). I wrote "You're a SUPER friend!" on each one, and for the teacher I wrote "You're a SUPER teacher!" or "You're SUPER!"
After we had written on each one, Joshua picked a heart for his, too, and put them on. Then I helped slide the cape on - putting the lollipop stem through the hole and giving it a tug to go over the wrapper. Once in place, it didn't move but a few were difficult to get up. Then, we taped the masks/glasses onto the head of the lollipop. I thought they turned out so cute!
While I had been getting frustrated with Joshua not being able to keep his letters small enough for the space, I realized when I saw his classmates' Valentines that his writing is actually better than I thought for his age. His were well above average from what I could see. Some didn't bother to write the other person's name (even though these were the instructions from the teacher) while others didn't even write their own name. Some that did, you couldn't read any of it.
So, I felt downright awful about scolding him to try to write smaller and really watch his spacing. I shouldn't be so hard on him. I told him how proud I was of him for making the effort to do the valentines himself. The only ones I wrote were the teachers long names and a couple others that were so long I could barely fit them on the space provided. Daddy also encouraged him that he was doing great. Practice is the best way to get better at anything. :)
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