There is nothing more precious than spending time with your children – for both them and you. Half term was a marvellous opportunity to do this and it need not be expensive. We spent quality time together playing Superheroes (and Villains) and Lego, inspired by watching The Lego Movie. I am currently planning a Superheroes party for my youngest son’s 5th birthday and so it was a great time to test a few things out. We made dens, home-made Superheroes villains costumes from our normal clothes, and built a Batcave.
We started by building the den. Really simply we just turned the corner sofa so it was back to back, got some old quilt covers and pegged them across it. To make it a bit more comfortable we put cushions inside. My youngest was the only one awake when I helped him build it and he thought it was amazing. But when the next son came down (aged 6) the beauty of parenting was even more magical as he excitedly told me it was the Batcave (his younger brother LOVES Batman). With that my youngest proceeded to get changed into one of his Batman costumes.
Somewhere along the line there was talk of the Green Lantern (who I must not confuse with the Green Goblin, this Marvels Vs DC is taking some getting used to). Suddenly we were raiding the dressing up to see if we could do home-made superheroes villains costumes of The Green Lantern and Cyborg.. The Green Lantern is really simple in that it is basically a green top and black trousers. We then made a medallion and cuffs using toilet roll holders and a bit of card.
Later on I went a bit further and ordered a plain green t-shirt from E-bay and bought some white paint from Hobbycraft to paint the Green Lantern emblem onto the top (it looked simple enough). From previously painting a Halloween t-shirt I knew what to do. However, we did not have the right fabric to use as a barrier. I *thought* that the cardboard would do the job.
Needless to say I never considered how hard painting over dark green with white would be! Several coats later I left it to dry overnight. Unfortunately, the paint had run underneath the cardboard and the paint had glued itself to the t-shirt. The final result really wasn’t what I had hoped for, but guess what?, my little boy was over the moon!!!
We also got out the face paints and I quite simply painted a Green Lantern mask on. I’m not expert on face painting, and really cannot draw, but again my son was delighted! Next was the turn of my 6 year old. He decided to be Cyborg. I had never heard of him (if I’m honest) and together we figured out how you spelt it so I could Google him. My son decided that he needed just to wear all white clothes, and that his face should be painted so that one side was like a robot. The other important point, he explained carefully, was that the eye should be red – for his laser.
Not only did the children enjoy playing (and spending time with me), but their ability to explain to me about the characters I feel really helped them in so many ways (including language, self-esteem and self-confidence).
They enjoyed it so much that we did it again – but with their Dad too J
