My very youngest is in the process of phase-in to all day kindergarten. Over these first two weeks, she’s slowly working her way up to being at school for an entire 8:00am to 3:00pm day. I’m working up to that too. It’s strangely quiet here. She knew I’d miss her, so she made me this Perler bead heart.  She gave specific instructions to “kiss it when you miss me.”  sigh. She is so much older and wiser than her five years.

Speaking of which, we are huge fans of perler bead crafting around here.  All three of my kids (and many of their friends) enjoy it, with the added bonus that it’s a pretty fabulous hand-eye coordinating activity too. If you’re not familiar, Perler beading is where you design a pattern on pegboards (like you see above) placing…

..plastic Perler beads on the pegs. Then, a responsible adult covers with ironing paper, irons  and the beads magically melt together. Finally you take the creation off the mold, iron the other side and there you have it…a piece of art. Kisses optional.