Birdhouse Craft

Paint and Decorate a Birdhouse

Please join me in welcoming Ann of My Nearest and Dearest.  Ann graciously agreed to write a guest post for me, and I love the beautiful birdhouse her son decorated!  Ann has so many wonderful ideas.  One of my recent favorites is her Recycled Outdoor Music Station.

 

I'm delighted to be here at Train Up A Child today. I've been following Allison's blog since my pre-blogging days and have drawn inspiration from so many of her kids' activities. Thanks for letting me share here today with you and your readers, Allison!

Paint and Decorate a Birdhouse On a recent trip to the dollar store I picked up a couple of wooden birdhouses. My son Peanut (35 months) loves painting and he also enjoys anything and everything to do with birds. I knew he would be thrilled to paint and decorate a birdhouse of his own. I set out a paper plate with blue, green, and white acrylic craft paint, paint brushes in a variety of sizes, and a birdhouse for each of us.

 

My hunch that he would enjoy this activity was spot on. He layered coat after coat of paint on his birdhouse, creating lovely shades of blues and greens.  

Then we sprinkled glitter (to reflect the outside light) on our birdhouses.  

Although Peanut applied a generous amount of glitter on his, it was soon covered up by more paint. :)

 

We let our birdhouses dry and headed outside to play. Step two of our project was to decorate our birdhouses. I like to use objects from nature in our art and craft activities so I set out a plate with periwinkles and sea glass. Peanut came up to the deck and watched me decorate my birdhouse (I used a glue gun to attach our beachcombing finds). He decided that he preferred his birdhouse unadorned and went off to play again while I decorated mine. I sealed both birdhouses with mod podge.

 

We had so much fun with this inexpensive activity that I may just make another trip to the dollar store to pick up more birdhouses. I think Peanut would happily paint enough to fill the forest! I loved watching the care Peanut took painting his birdhouse and the pride on his face when he helped select a tree to hang it on.

 

We've done a few other simple and fun bird activities over the last few months. If you enjoyed this one, you might also like: Make a Pretend Bird's Nest, Making Pinecone Treats for the Birds, or our Bird Ornaments. Thanks for reading! -Ann

Ann is a mom to one and a home daycare provider. She is passionate about play-based learning and getting out in nature. You can find her on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.