Were Building A Birdie House

Normally our crafty time is free in nature. I like to let the kids express themselves through their art. We have only one rule, there are no rules. For the longest time my son Alex has been asking to build a bird house and while I was at Michael's the other day I came across these:

I didn't notice I snapped a picture of the non English side.

They were only $1 so I thought they might be a fun little craft for the kiddos to do. They have an age recommendation of 5+ but other than helping my 3 & 4 year old assemble them they were more than competent to handle this craft.  

The kit came with everything you needed to build the bird house. Instructions, wood bird house pieces, sand paper, paint, glue & paintbrush. To keep the kids from painting my kitchen table I cut a piece of butcher paper as a work mat for each of them.

The first step was to sand all the pieces. They only partially followed this step as they are young ones and not too motivated to sand something without an obvious result. Second step was painting all the pieces. They were very excited to paint something besides paper.

Emma's a painting pro.

Alex has an interesting painting technique.

To keep the kids from mixing colors too much I gave them each a little bowl of water and a wash rag to clean their brushes on. We only had one spill during the whole project. That made mommy very happy. After all the pieces were painted to the kids satisfaction we allowed them a few minutes to dry. Once they were (mostly) dry we got them ready for gluing. 

Emma just painting away.

Alex was proud of his art.

Alex was frustrated that his roof kept falling off.

Emma gluing her last piece.

After all the gluing was done it was time to show off their bird houses.

Alex sure was proud of his bird house.

Emma's favorite thing is to paint so she was just beaming.

We set their finished projects outside to dry in the sun. These turned out to be two of the best dollars Ive spent in a long time. We had a blast doing our crafts and making memories. When Daddy came home from work the kids each got a turn to surprise him with their bird houses. Wonderful day!