I'm from the Windy City. Contrary to what many people believe, though it is called the Windy City because of politics not because of the weather. (In other words, the residents are known for generating a lot of moving air.) That being said, it is very cold. Despite the weather, I only remember having a snow day one time growing up. Even if I forgot a couple, it is clearly rare for a snow day to be declared.
That doesn't seem to be the case in Massachusetts. Whether they're warranted or not, there has been at least one snow day every year that my son has been in school. Sometimes I have agreed with them. Other times I have been surprised, particularly when the snow day follows a day with open schools but far less pleasant weather.
This year though I finally decided to embrace the snow days.
Hmmm...that's probably too strong of a statement. I decided to accept that I either have a backup plan during a snow day or no sanity by the end of a snow day. I went ahead and ordered a giant box load of Shrinky Dinks. Perhaps my sanity already is in question! That's right, those fun little craft projects from the 80's that you color in with colored pencils and then bake in the oven for a minute or two.
It started when someone had given the boys a Klutz Shrinky Dink book that they had gotten for free. I personally disliked it because instead of coming with prepinted Shrinky Dinks, you had to put a page of Shrinky Dink paper on top of drawings in the book and trace them. Then you colored them and cut them out. This was fine for my 6 year old but meant that I got stuck had to trace them for my 3 year old. Hence them appearing for free and subsequently being regifted. The kids really enjoyed them though.
Intrigued by the Shrinky Dink concept and in possession of fond memories of Shrinky Dinks from my childhood I went on-line and found a whole bunch at amazon.com. I ordered a couple sets and a Halloween Tree because who can resist a Shrinky Dink Halloween Tree? The preprinted Shrinky Dinks were a bigger hit than I had even hoped. Both kids could do them and my younger one can even take a stab at cutting them out, unfortunately sometimes literally!
For the holidays this year, I decided that I wanted to give the kids in our playgroups Shrinky Dinks. I discovered that they were even on sale. Fast forward to a few days later when my husband was surprised to encounter a UPS delivery man with a large box filled with Shrinky Dinks.
Some people have rainy day boxes filled with special crayons and toys. We have a large box filled with Shrinky Dinks like the above Shrinky Dink Holiday Tree created during a snowy playdate.
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