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What kid (or adult for that matter) doesn't love the story of David & Goliath?  Triumph of the little guy over the menacing giant? Good conquering evil?  Bravery, faith, loyalty? Heady stuff!  So what would be more fun than re-enacting the epic battle?  I started out researching the kinds of slings that a shepherd would have used.  I didn't want a wrist-rocket style of slingshot, but something a little more authentic, while still being manageable by kids who haven't been actually trained in sling warfare.

The first thing I found out in the function of the sling, is that it must have a loop at the end of one of the strings, while the other does not have a loop.  When using the sling, the operator slips the loop over the middle finger of his or her dominant hand, holding onto the other string.  The sling is swung over the head, then aimed at the target and the loose string is released.  The loop stays put; releasing the other string opens the pouch, and the projectile goes flying. (hopefully in the general direction of the target - most often, not!)

The body of the sling is simply made of felt.  I wanted to use leather for authenticity, but the felt looked really great in the end.  My older kids wanted to make their own and chose wild colors from my supplies, so theirs looked less biblical and more crazy, but whatever!  

I experimented a LOT to get the right shape.  It's basically an oval with the tips cut off flat (final measurements 3 1/2" x 2 1/2").  

Snip in about half an inch at the halfway point, fold over and stitch to create depth.  I sewed it on my machine and it was a piece of cake.  

It's not obvious from the picture, but there are also tiny slits cut on each of the 4 corners - not right on the corner, but in from the edge a little bit.  These are the holes through which you can thread your leather string. 

After the flat body section is sewn, thread leather (or whatever string you want to use) through both slits in one end and knot it tightly.  It will pull in the felt at the ends, which is exactly what you want.  This creates a deep pouch for the marshmallow.  Repeat with the opposite side.

The longer the strings, the more difficult it is to aim, but the more power and distance you can achieve.  So, for the older kids, my strings were around 12 inches, while for my younger ones they were closer to 8 inches long.   Experiment to your liking. 

I should also note that I use the large marshmallows.  The small marshmallows were my original intention, but they are too light-weight and refuse to come out of the pouch. 

 So now that our Davids have slings, they need a Goliath to aim at.  I have seen some very amazing drawings, and some very amusing drawings, that people have done on butcher paper, to represent to kids how big Goliath really was.  I know that this itself is an issue of scholarly debate, but I did a bunch of research and went with the most general consensus for my Goliath's height of 9 3/4 feet.  (He turned out only to be about 9 feet tall, so I made sure he was off the floor a bit to get his eye-level closer.) So anyway, you don't have to go as crazy as I did, a drawn figure on butcher paper for a lesson to use the slings with works great!

I opted to crop & use this amazing image of David & Goliath from lds.org, and thanks to a fantastic friend of mine who is an architect and therefore has one of those huge printers, was able to get my life-sized, super menacing Goliath!  (It was split in half, due to the paper size, so I had to glue/tape the whole thing straight up the middle - scary trying to get it all perfectly lined up!!) (TIP: Since my initial posting, I've heard that Staples will print large architectural size pictures as well for fairly cheap)

My kids had a blast trying to hit Goliath ANYWHERE with their marshmallow slings.  Mostly they hit objects behind them (me - the photographer - being the prime marshmallow pummeled victim). I think more mallows were eaten than fired, when it came to the little ones.  

Watch out Goliath! 

After the fun, we talked about the symbolism of and lessons to be learned from the story.  It was a ton of fun and I've used it in Primary and a couple of FHEs since then.  It's a favorite, which is why I FINALLY got around to sharing!  Hope you have fun with it too!






Here are some other great David & Goliath resources for teaching the story. The video is older, but is still effective.

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What is sweeter than a classic, old fashioned paper heart Valentine?  I know I'm a sucker for them.  So, this year, I ran across this tutorial for making paper flowers, I was dying to try some roses and make some classic Valentine hearts.

They're obviously very simple: base heart of pink or red cardstock, paper lace heart doily, scrapbook paper decorative center heart, then accent each in a unique way.  I did roses, smaller hearts, and one daisy-style flower with a gem center.

I know they're not the most groundbreaking craft ever, but they look ever-so-slightly victorian and they were fun to make.  However, they didn't end up being Valentines, as intended.  Why?

Well....

I don't have any Valentine decor.  I know, I know, it's pretty pathetic! I probably haven't prioritized decorating because my Valentine's traditions are already pretty overwhelming, what with the sugar cookie making, the multiple valentine mailboxes for kids to take to their class parties, the supplies to gather to send to said class parties, and the valentines to prepare for friends and family children.  It's not that crafting isn't around - obviously it is out in spades - decor just takes a back seat. So, this year, when I'd finished playing at different varieties of paper hearts, I thought they were too cute to just sit on my desk.  Throw some sticky hanging putty stuff on the backs and arrange in a circle and Voila!  A pretty, lacy Valentine wall wreath!  A kind of lame one, since it's just temporary but still it's actually quite sweet on my wall - my first Valentine decor.  And a great trial for figuring out paper roses.

Spontaneous Valentine Wall Wreath out of paper Valentines

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  I find garden gnomes hilarious, so when I saw this tutorial from Family Fun, for DIY valentines based on a gnome, I was instantly in love!  So cute!  My gnomes were adapted, however, for two reasons.  First, gnomes have big feet - it's part of who they are!  Second, it gives the valentine just a little more candy to give than just the one candy kiss, which made it more of a gift for the kids to give their friends.

So here's my quick tutorial for making these fun little characters with your kiddos! Trust me, by the time you get finished, you'll be so in love with them you'll be posing them around and taking pics of them in crazy places too!  It's kind of irresistible!

Choose felt colors for hats - we went with pink, red purple & blue

Cut 4 inch felt circles for hats - whatever colors tickle your fancy

Divide circles into quarters

Glue along one edge & roll around finger to create hat

Supplies needed for body - kisses & hearts

Supplies needed for face - googlie eyes & tiny pom poms

I don't know about you, but I get a little uptight about multiple supplies & multiple kids - things just get crazy and then I get crazy, and then chaos ensues!  So I pre-planned by providing each kid with the right number of "feet" (hearts), "bodies" (kisses), large glue dots to attach the bodies to the feet, and a strip of googlie eyes already stuck on small glue dots.  Then I could sit back and watch them be creative without losing it because the whole bag of googlie eyes just got glued to the floor!

assembled body