Fun rainy day, or hot day indoor activity

With record heat in our city lately, the whole idea of loading up the kids and going anywhere has seemed very unappealing.  Doesn't help being 7 months pregnant either!   So you've used up all your indoor entertainment activities and the kids are now climbing the walls?  Try this fun, simple activity that they will absolutely enjoy, and will create some lasting memories in the process.

You will need,
all to at least two of your children, (If you have only one child a parent could help out with this).
A digital camera
photo editing software, (such as Picassa. Picnik might work you just need the "collage" option)
Plenty of floor space
masking tape (optional but not necessary)
a chair or stool
good overhead or natural lighting
imagination and some patience

So what you are going to do, is make a collage photo of each of your children's names, using them (their bodies) to make the letters.  You may have to try out a couple of different combinations of contorting your children to get the letters to look right. But it's actually a lot easier than it sounds.  And once you get through a letter or two it gets even easier.

My husband came up with this first off with my oldest two, and did the first set of names.  The kids and I finished off the youngests' this past weekend.  They were all tickled with the results.

Take a snapshot of each letter in the child's name.  This is for Henry so we started with "H". You could use masking tape to lay out the letters on the carpet, which makes communicating each child's position a little easier, but that does take a lot more time, and you risk the tape showing up in the photo.  Perfection is not key to these photos.

Lay each kid on the floor and place them into letters shapes.  You could do lower case but capital letters just seemed a little easier. 



Place a chair, stool, bench or stand on a piece of furniture where you can get a good overhead shot of each letter.  You may even have to hold the camera at arm's length distance or so to get it centered into your screen and to avoid your own feet (or prego belly hee hee) If you get a tad bit of yourself in the bottom of the picture, you can always crop it out when you go to edit.





Don't be afraid to take a couple of shots of each letter. count on the kids not always staying perfectly still while you line up your shot. And there's probably going to be someone making a face, flatulence noises, or giggling, in the midst of it all.

You'll also like the option of choosing from two or three shots as things look a little different on the computer screen than from your camera preview.

When finished, upload them into your preferred photo editing software, we use Picassa.  And then crop and adjust as needed. 

You will then go to the Collage section of your program to line each picture up to spell out the name. 









When finished, you will have something like this....

I really like this in a black and white version, so as not to date it too much, or in if you don't like the color combo of the clothing they're wearing. 

 
You can then send your photo to be printed (it would be really neat enlarged), or print it off on your own home printer.  We did this in black and white, and printed it off on our 8.5"X11" paper and still like it enough to frame it just like this.  I will probably cut mine down and then use scrapbook paper to make a custom matting for the space around it.  My kids have really enjoyed looking at the picture of themselves as letters over and over again, and I'm sure you will too!  Have fun!