We’re gearing up for the 4th of July, and today Veronika got to make her first patriotic craft! She was too young for crafts last year at Independence Day, but there are so many fun red-white-and-blue projects that she can do now as a toddler.

For this one, we needed sponges in the shape of stars and stripes. You can cut these yourself, but I knew my scissor skills aren’t quite that deft when it comes to cutting sponges. Luckily we have a set of shape sponges attached to handles; I used the rectangle for “stripes”, along with the star.

I showed Veronika how to dip each sponge in a plate of paint (use red and blue of course) and then press onto white poster board.

She very quickly got the hang of it and loved it!

“Stripes” were far easier for her to accomplish than the star, which needed even pressure along all 5 points, so I helped with those.

It turned out that big brother Travis wanted to try, too! So after officially making our stars and stripes artwork, we dipped and painted with other shapes for a while. I love seeing the work of an almost-2 and almost-6 year old side-by-side.

This was a great craft to fill a rainy morning.