Paper Cranes

Over the last two days, I read Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes.  This is quite possibly the most depressing children's book besides Where the Red Fern Grows.  This book was scheduled for Ian this year, but he read it a long time ago, so I read it to Shane, Evie, and Fiona instead.  At the end, when Sadako falls asleep and never wakes up again, Fiona was understandably upset.  She cried, "Why did those bad guys ever drop that bomb in the first place!"  We had a quick discussion about World War II and then I played the "squirrel" card.  "Who wants to learn how to make a paper crane?"

I pulled out my old scrapbooking paper and Ami's old origami paper.  We had three origami books and the internet to help us figure out how to fold origami cranes.  We folded cranes, peacocks, penguins, foxes, tortoises, and a sea lion.  When animals got boring to Ian, I let him fold complicated paper airplanes from that kit that has been stashed away for a few years.  When Ian started complaining that Evie was wasting all the paper, I had to point out that I'd rather the paper get used than stored for another five or ten years!

Some kids had longer attention spans and better critical thinking/fine motor skills than other kids.  Some of the instructions were really hard to follow!  Evie now has a collection of 18 peacocks!  And she still isn't finished.