The Ugly Duckling Hand and Footprint Craft

I found a hand and footprint swan craft, at FreeKidsCrafts.com, that I thought would be a great story stretcher for Hans Christian Andersen's The Ugly Duckling. I planned to do it this morning with the children, as a stART project (a story + art link up at A Mommy's Adventure). But, I ran into a snag. All the copies of the story were checked out from the library.

Then, I discovered we had the story already sitting on our bookshelf, in the "stories and fables" volume of our Childcraft Encyclopedia set. I'm not a salesperson at all, I learned that lesson when I was twelve, and tried to sell subscriptions of Grit Magazine around the neighborhood. But, if I was going to try my hand at selling anything again, I think it might the Childcraft Encyclopedias. Even in this world, of instant information access, these books can be handy things to have.

After reading the story, we followed the instructions for making our swans.

Or, I should say my five year old followed the instructions.

My youngest, who is very three right now, decided she wanted to cut, and glue on her own. So, her swan turned out a little different.

But, since The Ugly Duckling is ultimately about beauty being in the eye of the beholder - that worked out too.

It's great to be a homeschooler.