Pinterest Project: 3D Hands

      Today we took my sister, who has been staying with us, to the bus station. She's been here since we moved to Arizona to help me with the kids. After working for awhile, we decided I can stay at home so she is on her way back to Illinois. She was a great help! We waited an extra forty-five minutes for the bus to arrive and the girls bawled for a good twenty minutes on our way back home. I figured we needed some cheering up.

      A few days ago I saw a cute idea on Pinterest so we tried it out when we got home.

      This was the original idea:

http://pinterest.com/pin/176203404141565292/
    
      The project is to trace your hand with pencil on a piece of paper, draw a straight line to the pencil lines, add a 'bump,' then draw another straight line to the other edge of the paper. Then you continue on the entire paper. The result is an optical illusion that looks like a 3-D hand.

      I must say it was much harder than I anticipated. Right off the bat I realized it would be impossible with Raulee (age 3) and very difficult for Aubree (age 4). The first step was tracing their hands. I used graph paper (you can use a ruler) to help with straight lines. This didn't help much, though.

    

     For Raulee I just drew the lines and let her color it.

Her finished product:

      Aubree attempted a few of the lines herself, but I ended up drawing dots for her to follow. She was very disappointed she couldn't do it by herself at first, but then finished the project quickly when I assisted her and she saw it taking shape. She was SO excited when we finished and made me take this picture so "people would think her hand was really on the paper."

Her finished project:

      Final verdict: this activity is much better suited for older children--even I had difficulty! Ha. In the beginning they were arguing over who's hand I was going to trace first so I chose the dog to show them how it was done. I'm sure she was pleased to be a part of the fun:

      Afterwards we spent some time looking at optical illusions on the internet. Aubree marveled at how her eyes "tricked" her.

      Now they're eating ice cream and watching one of their favorite shows. Our crafts are on the fridge and my sister is half way across the state. I'm very thankful for the time we had with her and can't wait to see her again.