Create a Family Mobile!

Mobiles are a fun and easy way for kids to show off the important people in their life. Plus, they make a wonderful room decorations! This is a meaningful activity to do with your kids if you want to make a special mobile with just pictures of the family. Get together some family photos, glue, yarn and a paper towel roll and you'll have a fantastic decoration of lasting memories.

What You Need:

• Paper towel roll
• Colored construction paper
• Glue
• Scissors
• String or thin ribbon
• Yarn
• Paper clips (at least eight large ones)
• Family photos (and/or photos of friends)

 What You Do:

1. Turn the paper towel roll sideways and measure it on a piece of colored construction paper of your child's choice. Cut the paper to the size of the paper towel roll so that it will completely cover it. Then wrap it around the tube and glue it in place (a glue stick works particularly well for this)
2. Thread a string or yarn through the roll to the other side and tie around the roll so it creates a triangle. This is how it will hang from your ceiling, so make it as long or as short as you like.
3. Set out about four or five large paper clips. Tie a thin ribbon or yarn to each paper clip on the widest side of the clip (the straight side.)
4. Do this with three or four other clips, using various sizes of ribbon or yarn. The pictures are going to hang from these strings so having them at various lengths will give the mobile some dimension.
5. Poke the paper clip through the bottom of the paper towel roll and pull the clip through, and turn it to the side so it stays in place. (Mom and Dad may need to poke the hole with a pair of scissors first.)
6. After you have poked all of the strings through, tie another large paper clip to the bottom of each string, only this time, tie it to the narrow curve at the top of the clip. Repeat this with each string.
7. Take favorite photos and cut the edges into interesting curvy lines, or leave some straight.
8. Slide them into the paper clips, front and back, so that a photo is visible from each side. (If you have four strings, you'll need eight photos.)

Now admire your beautiful mobile full of family memories! As you make more memories together you can swap them into your mobile, or even make another one.