I can not explain how much fun these were to make, and then use at dinner.  Yesterday I asked my readers on facebook if their kids have chores, and that question came out of this post since setting the table is one of my son’s responsibilities. Making these fun monogrammed napkin rings made his job even more fun and he excitedly set the table, and made a point to tell us all why we had the letter we had.  Learning is never far away.

1. Gather your materials. You will need some corrugated cardboard, magnetic letters, water colors, scissors and a hot glue gun ( adults only!).
2. Start by having your child paint the cardboard with the watercolors. My son was so into this today, I think he liked the bumpy surface of the cardboard, and the sounds it made when he changed the force and speed with which he painted. Don’t put a time limit on this, but remember the younger the child, generally the shorter the time.
3. Let dry ( won’t take long).
4. Choose the letters you are using. Our well loved magnetic letters were short most of the vowels, so there was no A for Allie, instead I got M for Mommy, I like that name best anyway.
5. When the cardboard is dry cut out into strips.
6. I handed my son some scissors and the left over cardboard to have fun cutting while I used the now hot glue gun.
7. Glue the cardboard strips into rings.
8. Next he played with the extra letters.
9. And I glue the letters we’d selected onto the rings. You will want to hold the letters on for a minute while the glue congeals. Even big kids should have an adult do the gluing. I burnt myself 3 times ! Now you have napkin rings, and place cards all in one!