I have mentioned before that I love Instructables.com. I was browsing the other evening when I came across a post about cutting intricate paper snowflakes (holy moley, sorry for all the links!) I don’t think I was ever particularly good at cutting paper snowflakes but I thought I should pass along the frustration of cutting them to my kids. I had barely finished describing what we needed to do when Isaac declined any further involvement…so, that leaves Abigail to drive to madness!
Typically, when I cut snowflakes, I just started in on the paper in my best Edward Scissorhands imitation. Like most things, I had no plan or desired output. It never occurred to me to plan ahead but the instructable changed my mind. We decided to fold the paper as usual, but then draw a pattern ahead of time. It made me think about what I wanted the end result to be. Cool!
Abigail didn’t really get the excitement of “the edge”. It’s the “mother-edge” I told her, the edge from which all snowflake life flows. “Ok Dad, can I cut now?” Ah, sweet…she’s feeling snowflake frustration! Anyhow, she drew a number of shapes including some trapezoids and parallelograms to see what would happen. As she unfolded her first snowflake, she began to understand the “edge from which all blessings flow”.
We decided to hang our snowflakes on the front door, but Mohinder, our cat, didn’t like them there…blocked his view I guess. We had to raise them up so he couldn’t reach them. 
Anyhow, we are pretty proud of our work. I expect that we’ll make one each night for awhile. She loves to do arts and crafts projects and this is right up her alley! I expect that it won’t be long until we learn to make paper-mache or 3-d origami-like ornaments or tissue paper ornaments, etc.
Abigail is also pretty generous and wants to make enough so that we can give them to people for Christmas…I like the way she thinks!
Very cool Warren. I always had paper snowflake frustration as well!!
What a fun project – and so good of you to teach the joy of frustration to your kids. It’s good to learn one’s personal coping strategies for this from a young age, don’t you think? Isaac’s disappearing act was a bold and clever move. Abigail’s tenacity showed her inner strength in the face of adversity.
🙂
Wow, those are the fanciest paper snowflakes I have ever seen. Our Abby has been making a bunch lately too, although we’ve just been winging it. Thanks for the link, these will be fun to work on.
Ron
I am inspired!
Classic fun, and yours are lovely!
I haven’t made snowflakes in years-but now I want too.
I was SO amazed by this when I was a kid. Maybe I was a little too simple minded haha.
Happy Holidays 🙂
@mozunk
Boy you have been bust Warren…I’ve fallen behind reading. Great cinnamon applesauce ornaments, I’ve never made them and those are some great snowflakes. Good weekend projects!
Very cool craft to teach her …..frustrations included! They look great – you need to get a picture of the cat playing with them. And I’ll have to try the cinnamon applesauce ornies…..when I can catch a breath – they look like they would be fun.
Kris
Abigail made more last night and she is definitely getting better at seing how she wants it to look. Isaac – he still doesn’t care a lick. He is a voracious reader and he’s been reading while the rest of us do crafts. That sounds pretty great to me!
Ohhh you are a bad man…I have such a vise for all things handcrafted and had never heard of that sight. I just spend the last 1/2 hour looking at things I must, must try.
If I get nothing done today at all I’m going to gell my husband it was because of you and that site, lol!
Off to try an origami ball ornament! Kim
That’s my problem with instructables too…I love it and can always find something cool to do when I am bored!
Found the WV. Neat. You sure didn’t get your talent from your mother. I never could get my snowflakes to like I wanted them to.
Thanks Mom for catching the WV…it’s for the state, but not necessarily for the university…lots of folks here forget that WV is a state as well as a university