Tuesday, September 7, 2010

A "When I Grow Up" Craft


Wanting to capitalize on the interest in possible future careers, brought on by our visit to the Museum of the Rockies, I was delighted to find our library had a copy of Jo S. Kittinger's When I Grow Up.

I was slightly less delighted, that it was the Spanish language version, Cuando Sea Grande. But, luckily for me, it's a Rookie Reader, which is about right for my Spanish language skills. And, the pictures are simple, and clear, so I was able to translate it into English, as I read it to the children.

I also printed, and cut out, a number of paper doll people, and career type outfits, from Making Friends, which I scattered on the table, for the children to sort out, and glue together.


Just for fun I threw in a couple, that weren't necessarily career uniforms, like a princess dress.


When the older children objected to "princess" as a career option, I threw a lab coat over the dress, and suggested she was a Renaissance Fair coordinator, on the weekends, and an X-ray technician during the week. Who we are, isn't always what we do.

And, since people tend to switch careers from time to time, I picked six of the dressed, paper dolls, and glued them down to a card stock circle (about dinner plate size).


Then, I used a paper fastener to loosely, attach a smaller circle (the size of a small saucer) in the middle...


...to which I glued cut out pictures of the children's faces (and, now you see why we left the paper dolls bald).


They can turn the circles, and see themselves, and their siblings change careers, at will.

If only it were that easy in real life!

It's great to be a homeschooler.

9 comments:

Unknown said...

That is a GREAT idea- Muy Bien! :0)

Ticia said...

I just printed off and made magnets of slews of those clothes. As soon as I saw the picture I went "I know where that's from,"

I love that you made it into a rotating thing. Way too cool.

Christy Killoran said...

So clever! I bet the kids are having fun with that.

I laughed reading about the older kids and the princess. My daughter has princess on her list of potential careers!

Yes, it is too bad that changing jobs isn't that easy.

Natalie PlanetSmarty said...

I LOVE it - and what a great site. At the moment the only career choice my daughter considers is to be a mommy, but I want to look for that book.

Christianne @ Little Page Turners said...

How cute is this? (And can I tell you how hilarious you are? A renaissance fair lab technician? Too funny.) What a great way to inspire your kids to dream of their futures!

Brimful Curiosities said...

My daughter also thinks that princess route is the way to go, though in her world the princess would be a children's book illustrator by day and singer by night.

Debbie said...

This is so cute! I love the idea of making it so they can change careers when they want to. Hopefully not two will want to be the same thing at the same time.

Unknown said...

for a second, I thought all of your kids would be bald when they grew up..PHEW!! I was glad to see they had hair later in life.

We used that site for Flat Stanly one year.

cheryl golangco said...

cute! I love this idea! Thanks for sharing it! :)