Road Trip - Part 3 - National Aquarium in Baltimore

We spent our third day of the Great Page Family Road Trip '09 at the National Aquarium in Baltimore, MD. It was incredible, particularly the dolphin show we were able to take in.
As we were waiting for the show to start, I perused the offerings in the gift shop. Of course I headed straight to the book section! The best by far was Eric Carle's Mister Seahorse. The tale of a daddy seahorse, the book covered many of the creatures we saw at the museum. Not only does it contain Carle's beautiful artwork, it includes acetate sheets printed with camouflage that hide the sea creatures underneath. You know if I was having fun pulling back the acetate to find the underwater animals, your child will too!

The Craft - A Seahorse Tote

We obviously weren't doing a lot of crafts on the road, but I found one I just had to try with Little Page when we got back.

1. Print out this cutout and trace onto sandpaper. Cut out the seahorse shape.
   
   
2. Have your child draw on the sandpaper firmly with different colored crayons. I suggest helping them push down on the crayons. You really need to coat it.
   
   
   
3. Turn the sandpaper colored-side down on a paper bag and iron on low heat to melt the crayon. (Put a piece of paper between the iron and the sandpaper if you don't want melted crayon on your $60 iron!)
   
   
4. Ta-Da! A seahorse decorated bag just right for you child to hide their secret sea treasures inside. Okay, so ours turned out a little more "interpretive" than I would have liked, but Little Page was thrilled with the result. To have more success, I suggest using a finer grade sandpaper and REALLY load it up with crayon.