Ramadan Star and Moon Craft

July will be the start of Ramadan, the month of fasting for the Muslim world. Decorating for Ramadan is an exercise of imagination as you can’t just pop over to your local craft store and pick up Ramadan-themed supplies. There are no set Ramadan colors in the way that red plus green equals Christmas, leaving color schemes wide open to creativity. I always prefer to make crafts out of recycled materials when possible so I first took stock of what was around the house as I brainstormed craft ideas for Ramadan.

I have a ton of my kid’s art collecting in the cabinet. I have tried various organizational systems where the idea sounds awesome, but I just couldn’t stick to it, like photographing my kids’ art and uploading it into photo books. Although I have thrown out a huge amount of their art (shhhh) and some of my favorite pieces are framed around the house, like these:

the fact remains that I still don’t really know what to do with many of my favorites that aren’t quite frameable but not disposable either. So they stack up in the cabinet:

Now that I’ve shown you one of the many embarrassing cabinets in my home, let’s move on, shall we?

I thought a neat craft would to use some of the kids’ art work to make a star and moon decoration. It’s made of about 90% recycled material—the only thing not recycled is the string! So here’s what I used.

Materials
Old cereal box
Kids’ art work
String
Cookie cutters for star and moon (but you can also make your own stencil as well)
Glue
A stick we found outdoors on a walk (I knew if I kept it around I’d find a use for it!)

Instructions
1. Trace the stars and moons onto a flattened cereal box. The kids may need some help holding the stencil in place.

2. Select the art work you want to use. I loved this one because of the bold colors.

3. Fold it in half (less cutting!), taping it to the other side of the cardboard stars and moons. You don’t have to do it this way but it will make for less cutting in the end.

The middle ones are the cereal box cardboard and the ones on either side are the painting.

4. Glue the stars and moons to each side of the cardboard. Once dry, poke a hole in the top for the string.

5. String the stars and moons over the stick, tying with a double knot to make sure they hold firm. I went with two different shades of blue string.

6. As a final step, tie a string firmly on each end so you can hang it.

I decided to hang ours by the back door as that’s the one most frequently used. It’s a bright and cheery reminder of Ramadan as we go in and out of the home each day!

Ramadan Mubarak to all!

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Visit Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama to find out how you can participate in the next Carnival of Natural Parenting!

Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants:

(This list will be updated by afternoon July 9 with all the carnival links.)

• A gift for my daugther — Amanda, a special education teacher for students with multiple exceptionalities, discusses at My Life in a Nutshell how she will enrich her daughter’s life by educating her the amazing gifts her students will bring to the world.
• The Beauty in Our Differences — Meegs at A New Day writes about her discussions with her daughter about how accepting ourselves and those around us, with all our beautiful differences and similarities, makes the world a better place.
• Accepting Acceptance and Tolerating Tolerance — Destany at They Are All of Me examines the origins of and reasons behind present day social conformity.
• Differences — sustainablemum discusses what she feels to be the important skills for embracing diversity in her family home.
• Turning Japanese — Erin Yuki at And Now, for Something Completely Different shares how she teaches her kiddos about Japanese culture, and offers ideas about “semi immersion” language learning.
• Celebrating Diversity at the International House Cottages — Mommy at Playing for Peace discovers the cultures of the world with her family at local cultural festivals
• Learning About Diversity by Honoring Your Child’s Multiple Heritages — Jennifer at Hybrid Rasta Mama looks at the importance of truly knowing your roots and heritage and how to help children honor their multiple heritages.
• People. PEOPLE! — Kellie at Our Mindful Life is trying to teach her children to use language that reflects respect for others, even when their language doesn’t seem to them to be disrespectful.
• Call Me Clarice, I Don’t Care – A True Message in Diversity — Lisa at The Squishable Baby knows that learning to understand others produces empathetic children and empathetic families.
• Diversity of Families — Family can be much more then a blood relation. Jana at Jananas on why friends are so important for her little family of three.
• Diverse Thoughts Tamed by Mutual Respect — Amy at Me, Mothering, and Making it All Work thinks that diversity is indispensable to our vitality, but that all of our many differences require a different sort of perspective, one led by compassion and mutual respect.
• Just Shut Up! — At Old New Legacy, Becky gives a few poignant examples in her life when listening, communication and friendship have helped her become more accepting of diversity.
• The World is our Oyster — Mercedes at Project Procrastinot is thankful for the experiences that an expat lifestyle will provide for herself as well as for her children.
• Children’s black & white views (no pun intended … kind of) — Lauren at Hobo Mama wonders how to guide her kids past a childish me vs. them view of the world without shutting down useful conversation.
• Raising White Kids in a Multicultural World — Leanna at All Done Monkey offers her two cents on how to raise white children to be self-confident, contributing members of a colorful world. Unity in diversity, anyone?
• Ramadan Star and Moon Craft — Celebrate Ramadan with this star and moon craft from Stephanie at InCultureParent, made out of recycled materials, including your kid’s art!
• Race Matters: Discussing History, Discrimination, and Prejudice with Children — At Living Peacefully with Children, Mandy discusses how her family deals with the discrimination against others and how she and her husband are raising children who are making a difference.
• The Difference is Me – Living as the Rainbow Generation — Terri at Child of the Nature Isle, guest posting at Natural Parents Network, is used to being the odd-one-out, but walking an alternative path with children means digging deeper, answering lots of questions and opening to more love.
• My daughter will only know same-sex marriage as normal — Doña at Nurtured Mama realizes that the recent Supreme Court rulings on same-sex marriage will change the way she talks to her daughter about her own past.
• Montessori-Inspired Respect for Diversity — Deb Chitwood at Living Montessori Now tells about her multicultural family and shares Montessori-inspired ideas for encouraging respect for diversity.
• EveryDay Diversity — Ana at Panda & Ananaso makes diversity a part of everyday living, focusing on raising of compassionate and respectful child.
• Diversity as Part of Life — Even though Laura at Authentic Parenting thought she had diversity covered, she found out that some things are hard to control.
• Inequity and Privilege — Jona is unpacking questions raised by a summit addressing inequity in breastfeeding support at Life, Intertwined.
• 3 Ways to Teach Young Children About Diversity — Charise at I Thought I Knew Mama recognizes her family’s place of privilege and shares how she is teaching her little ones about diversity in their suburban community.
• Teaching diversity: tales from public school — A former public high school teacher and current public school parent, Jessica at Crunchy-Chewy Mama values living in a diverse community.
• 30 Ideas to Encourage Learning about Diversity While Traveling — Traveling with kids can bring any subject alive. Dionna at Code Name: Mama has come up with a variety of ways you can incorporate diversity education into your family travels (regardless of whether you homeschool). From couch surfing to transformative reading, celebrate diversity on your next trip!
• Diversity, huh? — Jorje of Momma Jorje doesn’t do anything BIG to teach about diversity; it’s more about the little things.
• Chosen and Loved — From Laura at Pug in the Kitchen: Color doesn’t matter. Ethnicity doesn’t matter. Love matters.
• The One With The Bright Skin — Stefanie at Very Very Fine tries to recover from a graceless response to her son’s apparent prejudice.