Tired Girl memory making, with children you know -

"Who wants to do some arts and crafts?"  A sentence that makes children squeal and Tired Girls cringe.  

This holiday season you will possibly be around: your own children, grandkids, kids' friends, neighbor kids, nieces and nephews, step-kids, random children around your home you don't know who they belong to or how they got there. 

Click here to read about it on amazon.com

Hand Made Kids Art: 12 days of HolidayCrafting for Toddlers and Preschoolers by Jamie Hand is a craft book for seriously Tired Girls, that have access to children, that they want to be with, entertain, educate or keep busy. It's a 2.99 download and as the author ¹ says the supplies are probably things you have around your house² and the activity themselves are major bangs for your buck - a big time happy memory and very small energy output - the ideal Tired Girl activity.

Here is a conversation that could happen if you use this book: 

"Remember when you came to my house and we made reindeers Aunt Carrie?"

"That was so fun, right?". 

"I named mine Felix and you named yours Cupcake!!"

"Oh Cupcake, what a sweet soul he is.  How is Felix?"

"He loves living in the Christmas closet with the other ornaments.  He is very popular."

"Of course he is - you made him."

 "I love you Aunt Carrie, you are the most fun person."

 "Wonderful!! Now please bring me my Uggs and some of Aunt Carrie's special water, and pick out a movie to watch and then later we will pick out another craft to make^{. 3"}

I love this one.

Have you ever done something nice, like
 planned a fun project and then when it came time to do said project you were so "done" that you were maybe grumpy with 
the innocent people that were happily participating. My poor little third graders may have met with this situation, but probably not since I would never do this. Except that I do.³

This book however is totally  Tired Girl worthy. It embodies what we want - we want to have fun and create memories for our family, but as Tired Girls our skin crawls at the idea of the amount of work a craft project (with children) inevitably would be.

This download (e-book) is a quality way to spend energy and time, but not too much energy and time is needed. You will have energy left to actually be sweet and enjoy the company of the children you do these crafts with. 

If you download it make sure you read the "Tips for Crafting and Creating Art with Young Artists.  I love what she says about "the process."<sup>4

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1. my friend Jamie!  
2. depends on what kind of cool stuff you have
3. thank you for putting up with my fantasy discussion
4. no third graders were injured in reality or for hyperbole, I worked my toosh off for all my students and sometimes I - like all other adults - had my patience tested by the enthusiasm and listening skills of sweet children
5. we should all be so patient with ourselves</sup>