We're burning through the construction paper at a good clip, given the pace of holidays over the past few months and the fact that Some People are learning to use scissors. I like to let the not-quite-three-year-old go about her business without too much guidance from me, but I can't leave her without supervision lest I return to a kid we'll have to call Stumpy (or a sofa cushion we'll have to call Trash).
So I sit there, noodling around and trying not to tell the kid what to do, while she creates mountains of useless paper scraps.
That was pretty boring, until I realized that I could use the time to use the die-cutters I found at the dollar store to create confetti that we can use for other projects later on. The cutters are too hard for the kid to use, so they've been sitting in the back of the craft drawer, but they're perfect for putting all those quarter-sized pieces of scrap paper to use:
All those red and white hearts and stars are what I got out of the leftover paper when I used two sheets of construction paper to make a garland of big hearts to string up in our window. I'm planning on keeping them in plastic bags and pulling them out next time we've got the glue out so she can have lots of stuff to stick down. And they've already gotten use as regular confetti: "Look, it's snowing LOVE!"
Using the die-cutter seems like a perfect companion activity - it keeps me involved in what she's doing, but not doing the same thing so she's not trying to compare her results to mine. Plus, it keeps all that paper out of the trash, at least until after it's glued down to something a few weeks from now!
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