Valentine's Day popcorn garland

Who says popcorn garlands are just for trimming Christmas trees?! The other day I spent some time with my two older kids while the two younger ones were sleeping doing some baking and crafting. I must admit that I don’t often bake or craft with my kids because it’s so much extra work and I’m usually in grumpy mom mode and don’t want to take the extra time to have them “help” me. Ugh. That is something I am really working on this year. Anyway, my kids and I had so much fun with this project and it is a great teaching moment too, because you’re spending time crafting together and they don’t even realize that they’re learning!

I already had popcorn and thread, so I just picked up a packet of pom poms from the dollar store. I recommend popcorn without butter, much less messy and whiter in color. Then I had my kids help me decide on what pattern we wanted to do. They decided on six pieces of popcorn to one pom pom. I put one kid in charge of handing me popcorn, and one in charge of handing me the pomp oms, in the right order of course. It was such a great activity to do together and only cost a dollar! Plus, I still have plenty of pom poms leftover for a future project! 

Things that this craft teaches:

• Colors
• Counting
• Pattern recognition 

What crafts have you done with your kids lately? How do you "trick" them into having learning moments? ;)