Make a Waterfall from Papier-mâché...

Children can make some very charming toys from papier-
mâché. I must warn you, however, once they get started on
 projects like this one, their enthusiasm has no boundaries!

       Do your little ones collect dinosaurs to play with? Most American children love plastic dolls like these and what better craft activity for busy little hands than one that helps them to explore and shape a world where their toys can come to life?

       Gather the following supplies from your craft supply to begin shaping a similar "waterfall" for your plastic toy dinosaurs, jungle animals or action figures:

Supply List:

• a tall, empty circular can (like a oatmeal box)
• masking tape
• white school glue
• green tissue paper
• brown paper bags
• brown paper that reminds you of rock textures
• fabric that looks like printed water
• newsprint
• Mod Podge (optional)
• a small paint brush

Step-by-Step Directions:

1. Start by forming the shape of a papier-mâché cliff from crushed newsprint, masking tape and an empty oatmeal carton. Crushing and mashing newspapers into round rock shapes is easy to do.
2. Wrap your rock shapes with masking tape as you go and attach these to the empty oatmeal can in a random placement. Don't worry about the tape so very much until you've got a cliff that you like. This is a messy project!
3. When you have finished with something acceptable, neatly apply small pieces of masking tape to the entire structure. Overlap some of the masking tape as you go.
4. Now cover the entire form with generous smears of white glue and shredded brown paper bags. You are essentially layering the paper in order to strengthen your form. Let this dry overnight.
5. After everything has dried, you are going to decorate the structure by alternating green tissue paper and the brown or grey looking paper that has texture. Use white glue or Mod Podge to attach the paper to the papier-mâché surface. 
6. Attach the fabric that looks like water to an area of the papier-mâché cliff where you think it might be running between the rocks. I shaped a little pool at the bottom of my cliff where my dinosaurs could drink.
7. Apply a generous amount of glue to the entire surface of your finished waterfall to give the overall project strength. After the surface has dried, store your papier-mâché in a large plastic tub along with your dinosaurs and play mats. Special storage not only keeps your toys picked up, but helps to preserve them for future play as well.

Above, you can see the stages of application for my papier-mâché water fall. I used a bit of artist's gel to apply the fabric water because I was worried about it adhering well. However, I found that after many applications the Mod Podge  and white Elmer's glue worked just as well. Don't be afraid to experiment with different glues, you'll find that there is a big difference in the cost of this project depending upon which glue you choose.

A toy stegosaurus followed by his euoplocephalus companion drink from the papier-mâché pool below. 
A tapejara balances at the top of the cliff waterfall.

Craft projects like these are excellent ways for older siblings to make a special gift for a
younger brother or sister's birthday or other holiday celebration like Christmas.

Close up of the textures used in the papier-mâché water fall.

How to make a more advanced waterfall model...

My Three Dolls

My Three Dolls

by Isabel Allardyce

I have three dolls, the dearest dolls

That ever you did see,

They're Clementine, and Rosabelle,

And Susan-Ann-Marie.

I'm very proud of Clementine,

For she's a lady fair

She has the daintiest dresses,

Blue eyes and golden hair;

So when my friends upon me call,

Or I go out to tea,

I always take my Clementine,

To show her off, you see.

Now Rasabelle's a baby doll,

So very big and fine

I don't know any one that has 

A baby doll like mine.

She's bigger than my cousin Dan,

Who's nearly six weeks old,

And when I want to carry her

She's more than I can hold;

And so I wheel her in a coach,

And O she looks so swell,

That all the children envy me

My baby Rosabelle.

But when I've been a naughty girl,

Or can't go out to tea,

Or when I'm ill, I play all day

With Susan-Ann-Marie.

For though I'm proud of Clementine,

And vain of Rosabelle,

I love my dear old raggy-doll

Far more than I can tell;

And every night she comes to bed,

And snuggles down with me,

She's such a very comfy thing,

Is Susan-Ann-Marie.

One & One

One & One

Two little girls are better

than one;

Two little boys can double the fun;

Two little birds can build a fine

nest;

Two little arms can love mother

best.

Two little ponies must go to a 

span;

Two little pockets has my little 

man,--

Two little eyes to open and close,

Two little ears and one little nose,

Two little shoes on two little feet,

Two little lips and one little chin,

Two little cheeks with a rose

shut in,

Two little shoulders, chubby and strong,

Two little legs running all day long.

Two little prayers does my darling say,

Twice does he kneel by my side each day,--

Two little eyelids cast meekly down,--

And two little angels guard him in bed,

"One at the foot, and one at the head."

This china doll loves large hats

Description of Coloring Page: ruffles, ribbons, curls, booties, old-fashioned cloths, Victorian playthings

Don't forget to drag the png. or jpg into a Word Document and enlarge the image as much as possible before printing it folks. If you have a question about this coloring page, just type into the comment box located directly below this post and I'll try to get back to you as soon as I can.

Color this baby wearing a christening gown

Description of Coloring Page: lace, pillow, baby doll, curly hair, child of God, promise, Christening doll, porcelain or china dolls

Don't forget to drag the png. or jpg into a Word Document and enlarge the image as much as possible before printing it folks. If you have a question about this coloring page, just type into the comment box located directly below this post and I'll try to get back to you as soon as I can.

The Sand Man

The Sand Man

Oho! but he travels the country over,

The queer little, kind little, elfish rover!

Lightly he bears in his tricksome hand

A silvery horn full of sleepy sand,

Shaking it here, and shaking it there,

Till the blossoms nod in the drowsy air;

Till the sunlight creeps down hill to bed,

Or slips through the sky where clouds are red;

Till the lambkins bleat a soft "good-night!"

And birds grow still in the tree-tops bright,

While sweet little eyelids, all over the land,

Droop with the weight of the silvery sand.

Baby Steps

Baby Steps

One step--two step,

Three step--four.

Who says my baby

Can't travel the floor?

Five step--six step--

Seven step--eight!

Now shall my baby

Rest him in state!

Sleeping with her favorite doll

Description of Coloring Page: bed, sleep, night, doll, wooden chair, carved heart, bed curtains, pillows, linens, poster bed, mattress, nightgown, color children sleeping with their dolls

Don't forget to drag the png. or jpg into a Word Document and enlarge the image as much as possible before printing it folks. If you have a question about this coloring page, just type into the comment box located directly below this post and I'll try to get back to you as soon as I can.

Story-Pictures in Your Child's Room

"Noah's Ark" by Edward Hicks, 1846. Also see "The Peaceable Kingdom"
restored here for a Doll Art Gallery or dollhouse.

       As soon as the child is capable of grasping a composition of more than one object, or to put it more psychologically, of relating the various elements of a composition, he is ready for story-pictures (visual narratives). These may be illustrative of a text, like subjects from the life of Christ; or anecdotes in themselves, like the old-time pictures by Wilkie. or, in our own day, those of Sir John E. Millais. The child's imagination is now keenly alive, and affords him his finest enjoyment. The story subjects he likes best are of course drawn from his own little world. A picture of mother and babe is a familiar nursery scene to him, and the world-old theme of the Madonna never loses its charm. Story-pictures in which children figure are of peculiar interest, just as children's books are largely tales of children's doings. A child with an animal is a delightful combination in a picture - a subject unhappily not easy to find in good art. Velasquez's "Prince Baltasar on his Pony" is perfect. What a pity to give a child "Can't You Talk?" when a masterpiece like that is available. Velasquez also painted his young prince with his dogs; and other portrait painters, notably Van Dyck and Reynolds, have turned out charming compositions of children with their animal pets. Little Miss Bowles hugging her spaniel is one of the most familiar of this happy company. The child John the Baptist and the Lamb was a subject several times repeated by Murillo in some excellent pictures. By the same painter is a lovely picture, in the Madrid gallery, of the Christ-child playing with St. John and the Lamb. Murillo also drew groups of children at play directly from the scenes of the street and market, full of story suggestion. This theme of children playing together, like that of children with animals, has not been nearly so often treated as we could expect or desire. One finds most examples perhaps in the English portrait school of the eighteenth century.

Arthur John Elsley paintings of childhood.

Build on the Child's Curiosity

"Multiple viewpoints and impossible stairs"
 by M. C. Escher may be used to decorate a
dollhouse or shown in a Doll Art Gallery.

       As I count recognition, or identification, as one of the first elements of a child's interest in pictures, I regard curiosity as another. It is a pleasure to look at something which provokes investigation. From pictures of domestic pets, which a child identifies so quickly, he passes with awe and curiosity to pictures of strange creatures which have never come into his ken : elephants, camels, lions and all the rest. From pictures of houses and churches, such as he sees daily, he turns with inquiring eyes to views of beautiful Old-World buildings. Let the new thing be enough like the old to seem half-way familiar, yet enough unlike it to stimulate a fresh interest. The child must begin with what he can understand, but his thirst for knowledge gives him an eager zest for something a little beyond his understanding, not so far beyond it, however, that it is in outer darkness. The universal rule of progress is by one step at a time. 

• Why Young Children Are Curious 
• Tips on Nurturing Your Child's Curiosity 
• How Arts Education Develops Lifelong Learners
• Curiosity and Wonder: Cue Into Children's Inborn Motivation to Learn (pdf)
• A year with children 2016

The Museum of Natural Curiosity

the Child's Pleasure Is That of Recognizing Something Familiar

"Three Machines," by Wayne Thiebaud, 1963.
Read more about him and/or hang a print in a
dollhouse or Doll Art Gallery.

       If Dad is fond of fishing or sailing, the boy's first toys are likely to be boats, and so he is ready for any sea pictures, even Turner's. If Mother has a love for gardening, the little girl trained in the love of flowers will naturally like pictures of flowers. In all such cases it seems to me quite plain that the child's pleasure is largely that of recognition. He is proud and pleased to be able to identify and name the object. You secure his interest in a picture by pointing out the familiar things. The other day I dropped a bank-book which opened at a small woodcut frontispiece of the "Institution for Savings" - not much of a work of art. My four-year-old nephew fell upon it eagerly. "O see the house, isn't it cunning!" he exclaimed, gazing at the picture with the rapture of a Ruskin before the cathedral of Amiens. This of course was the sheer joy of recognizing a familiar thing. The mother might well take a hint from the episode. Here was a starting-point from which one might lead a child on to an interest in great architectural monuments. It behooves us to find out, first, what sort of picture a child likes, and if possible why, and then to gratify this taste in the most beautiful and artistic forms. If the child likes animals, give him Rosa Bonheur and Barye, rather than posters and Sunday comic strips. If baby pictures are in favor, supply prints of Correggio and Bellini, Van Dyck and Sir Joshua, rather than a ten- cent picture-book. If it is flowers, fruit, boats, houses, search out pictures of those objects which have genuine artistic merit. 

• What Makes Your Child "Tick"? Using Children's Interests to Build Communication Skills
• Want your children to survive in the future? Send them to art school.
• 7 Ways to Foster Creativity in Your Kids

Begin With What the Child Likes

Child with Toys by Pierre-Auguste-Renoir, 1895. Read and see more.

      It is too much to expect a very young child to like a picture because it is beautiful. The esthetic element is not to be reckoned with in his early picture experience. It is the subject which interests him, not the art in which it is embodied. His pleasure turns on what it is about, not on how it is treated. He has reasons of his own for his preferences, and some of them are rather hard to fathom. On the whole, however, they seem to grow out of very simple psychological principles, which we can analyze by careful observation. I recently asked a young mother what sort of pictures her little boy liked best. "Animals," was the prompt reply. I glanced around the nursery and saw a perfect menagerie of toys: horses, dogs, cats, bears, etc., in every imaginable form, from rubber and china to the most realistic skin and fur imitations. The father had begun in the child's infancy to bring home this sort of toy, and it was a natural transition from toy to picture. A girl baby's first and most common toy is the doll, and from this the natural transition is to pictures of children. 

• Encouraging Your Child's Exploration of the Arts
• 21 Ways to Display Kids Artwork
• 10 Reasons Why Arts in Education is So Important for Kids