Life: Idiotropic

St. Martin's Day parades are coming up this week, so it's time for all the children to make lanterns. At the German schools, all the children make lanterns in their classes. Arianna made hers in art class at her school. Luci's class made lanterns on Friday and parents were invited to help, so we all went. Since Tiara and Elise didn't have an opportunity to make a lantern, we got kits for them to take home. The thin paper was already glued to the bottom when we got there, but Luci got to put glue on the bottom and glue sand to it. Then we put on the top and began to trace and cut out the fish, seaweed, and stripes. Tiara and Arianna helped Luci cut. Luci did one seaweed herself with the poker. Here, to learn to cut on the lines and hand/eye coordination, children are given a thick fabric pad and a sharp metal poker. They put the paper on the pad and poke holes along the traced lines as if perforating it. Then they tear it out leaving a nice ruffled edge as if they cut it with decorative scissors. It's great for them, but takes some time and is tiring, so after Luci, Arianna, and Tiara each had done one with the poker, they were all ready to switch to scissors. Luci enjoyed gluing the most and all in all, it was a fun family activity there at the school with other families.

Lanterns can be just about any shape. We saw kids coming home from our local school carrying little paper dragon lanterns. Arianna's has colored tissue "flags" glued to the sides of hers. They all look really pretty when they are lit up.

Our first parade is tomorrow... I'll fill you in on St. Martin's Day traditions then!