Lest We Forget

Well, the day has and gone, but has not been forgotten.

Samantha is now 3 and a half and full of questions and inquiries. Remembrance Day was another one of those days.

But how do you explain what Remembrance Day truly means to someone so young...with a craft!

So, we made our own poppies out of red paint, coffee filters, buttons and glue.

The craft was easy, fun, messy and the perfect way to talk to Samantha  about what the poppy stands for.

1) Paint your coffee filters red and let them dry. 

(I had a very surreal moment as Samantha decided to paint her hands in the red paint 

to finger paint the poppies. Little does she know, the true significance in her actions)

2) After they have dried, crumble the coffee filter into a ball

3) Glue a black button to the middle and let dry.

 *Alternatively, you could put a pipcleaner through the coffee filter and button to act like the stem*

4)We glued the poppies to a piece of construction paper to bring to a war memorial. 

Now, the hard part, explaining to Sam what the poppy stands for. Here was our conversation.

ME: Men and women wear a poppy on this special day to remember the men and women who fought for you to be free. A long long time ago, a lot of people had to leave their mommies and daddies and go really far away for a really long time. While they were gone, they got into a big fight and some of those people didn't get to come home again. These flowers are our way of saying Thank You to each and everyone of those men and women and rembembering the sacrifice they each made for us.

SAM: These flowers are pretty mommy.

ME: (Kiss Sam on the forehead) Yes, sweetheart, yes they are.