Reading Wand

My daughter is entering first grade on Wednesday.  First grade is a huge year for reading, as I remember with my son.  Sure she has learned the concept of print in kindergarten, but the whole reading takes off in first grade.  When she reads to me in bed she prefers that I point to the words instead of her pointing to them.  Maybe it's an end-of-the-day-I'm-tired-you-do-it sort of thing, but I know it's important for her to begin pointing to the words as she reads.  Soooo...I thought, what better way to make her want to point to words than to make her a Reading Wand.  Off I went to Michael's to see what I could whip together.

My initial idea was to use a dowel as a "reading pointer."  However, when I found this wooden stake I knew it would work better.  And at 79¢ it couldn't be beat.

 

The first thing I did was sand all the edges and rough patches, which were far and few between.  After sanding the wood I...wait for it...spray painted it!  I had a pink color on hand and it was perfect.

  

Along with the wooden pointer, I also purchased some crystals.  What girl doesn't like shiny crystals? I started at the pointer end and worked my way down.  At first I thought of using a glue gun, but the glue dries too quickly.  Instead, I used a product called Weldbond.  I have an old pair of tweezers I use for projects like this.  The glue was pretty tacky though so I came up with a system of picking the crystal up with the tweezers and then using the toothpick to push it off the tweezers because the crystals kept sticking.

Along with the crystals I also picked up some satin flowers and ribbon because I knew I'd want to embellish the pointer.  As I worked my way down, I thought it was time for a flower, or two, or three...

I figured taking the crystals all the way down would be a bit over the top so I decided to stop while I was ahead.  It was time for ribbon.

 

 This is one happy girl who is excited to read...and point at the words!

Total cost of project:
Pointer = 79¢
Crystals = $2.99
Ribbon = $1.00
Flowers = $1.29

Total Cost = about $6.00