I vividly remember my children’s first day of school and the feelings of excitement and sadness I felt that day. Our 3 year old grandson started summer preschool today and I experienced those same feelings all over again. Just a year ago he was still a toddler, now he’s old enough for school. How did that happen so fast!
This morning Noah was having second thoughts about going to school. The day he had anticipated and prepared for did not seem as exciting now that his big brother was visiting from Denver and would be home all day. I did a little coercing and told him that when he got home we would create that Twiddlebug town we had been talking about for so long. Any apprehension he felt was soon forgotten and we were off to school. I was privileged to accompany his Mom and brother when they dropped him off for this life changing event. He walked straight to his class, hugged Mom goodbye and that was it, he was ready for us to leave. No crying, no begging for us to stay. Quite different from his Mom’s first day of school when the teacher had to pry a crying child off my leg!
The next 4 hours of free time we used to collect the items needed for our after school project. With some scrounging around the house and a trip to the $ store for the things we couldn’t find at home we were ready to start construction. In case you don’t know what a Twiddlebug is I’ll explain. When our children were young we used to read them a book called Twiddle Bugs At Work, a Sesame Street book about little winged bugs that live and work in Ernie’s window box. Twiddlebugs build their homes and community out of household items; milk cartons, boxes, straws, pencils, string or other items they collect from who knows where. The book describes a day in the life of a Twiddlebug. When I read the book to our Grandson for the first time, he and I decided it would be fun to construct our very own Twiddlebug town someday.
Connor and I made preparations and when Noah returned home he was excited to see that as promised we were ready to start on our project. We began by painting milk cartons for the Twiddlebug houses. While the boys were painting I began tying together the straws, pencils and paintbrushes for the first building. It was a little more challenging than expected. We first used twisty ties to hold the items in place and then added string. Connor being older was able to help with the more difficult tasks while Noah spent much of his time punching out red heart “valentines” to put in the Twiddlebug mail box.
We spent hours creating. Since we don’t have a window box we built our town in a raised planter box instead. This project will be an ongoing one because we have so many more ideas for Twiddlebug Town expansion!
This is a fun and inexpensive project that can be made from just about any item you have lying around the house so you can definitely use your imagination. If you would like to read the delightful book by Linda Hayward it can be purchased at Amazon, Twiddlebugs At Work from Amazon.
These are just a few of the items we used:
- 1/2 gallon milk cartons
- coffee can
- deck of cards
- popsicle sticks
- colored straws
- pencils
- artificial daisies
- paper towel rolls
- paintbrushes
- plastic utensils
- twisty ties
- paper cups
- string
- colored paper
- assorted buttons
- toothpicks
- craft glue
- craft paints
At the end of the day, Connor was already working on his next project; designing an image that we can take to the Public Library to be printed on their 3d printer!
Noah and I read Twiddlebugs at Work once again before bedtime.
“When Twiddlebugs get home they sit down and they stretch out and they begin to twiddle. Soon a lovely sound — the sound of Twiddlebugs twiddling — fills the air. It is the end of another perfect day in Twiddlebug Town.” (from Twiddlebugs at Work by Linda Hayward)