You are My Sunshine is a song that my mom sang to me a lot when I was little. It stuck with me as I grew up, and when I became a mom, it was the first song I sang to my daughter. I have sung it to her every night before bed, and it’s become our special song. She asks me to sing it when she’s sick or upset, and she sings it along with me some nights too. I was so excited when I found an illustrated version of the song, and I decided we should have some fun with it.

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You are My Sunshine was written by Jimmie Davis and illustrated by Caroline Jayne Church. This beautiful board book version of the song pairs the simple lyrics with colorful illustrations of young kids and their beloved stuffed toys.

Caroline Jayne Church’s illustrations are done in her signature style, showing adorable kids interacting with their stuffed friends, which kids will easily relate to. My daughter loves looking at the pictures while hearing the words to her favorite song, and asks me to read it over and over again. She even “reads” it on her own! This simple book is such a wonderful addition to our library.

Capture this moment with your little sunshine

Handprint/ Footprint Art – I wanted to create a fun project with my daughter that would remind me of this moment in time with her. I decided to have her paint with her hands or feet to create this bright piece of artwork. (She chose feet since she had so much fun using them on our mud puddle painting!).

I painted a yellow circle in the corner of a canvas, and gave her a plate with yellow paint on it. After she smeared her foot in the paint (her favorite part of course), I helped her place her footprints around the circle, making a sun shape. Once the paint dried, I painted the words “You are My Sunshine” across the center of the sun. I love that her little footprints will be frozen in time, and that this artwork will bring back all the late nights I spent singing this song to her.

Brighten up your home

Sun Catchers – Just like my daughter makes me happy when skies are gray, we wanted to make our home a little happier when skies are gray. We decided to make some sun-inspired suncatchers to bring some bright colors into our playroom windows.

I laid out a piece of contact paper, sticky side up. We poured some orange and yellow paint into the middle and I folded it in half so the sticky sides went together. I drew a circle on the paper, surrounding the paint and then encouraged her to smear the paint around inside the circle. Next, we painted a paper plate with yellow paint and I cut a circle out of the center of it. Finally, I cut the circle out of the contact paper painting and used masking tape to attach it to the back of the plate.

Create your own sunny day

Fine Motor Practice – My daughter received a pair of kid scissors for Christmas, and she has been really excited to practice using them. I decided that this book gave us the perfect opportunity to give her some fine motor practice. This simple sun craft encourages kids to practice scissor skills by cutting sun rays out of construction paper.

Using a ruler, draw straight parallel lines from end to end on a sheet of yellow or orange construction paper. Encourage kids to use their scissors to carefully cut along the lines to create “rays” for their sun. Next, fold a piece of yellow paper in half and draw a half circle along the edge. Have them cut along the circular shape to create the center of their sun.

Once all the pieces are cut out, they can glue their sun together. My daughter loves any opportunity to use glue on a project, so she loved helping me add glue to the sun. You could also make this more challenging by using zig zag lines for the rays, or encouraging kids to use different colors and line types to create a pattern of rays on their sun.

Carry a little sunshine with you

Sunshine Keepsake – Being apart from your child can often be really tough on both you and them. I wanted to give my daughter something to remind her of my love for her, no matter where she is. So I drew a small sun on the underskirt of her doll, so she could always look at it when she needed to be reminded.

You could also take a simple river rock and paint a yellow sun on it, or you could also purchase a small sun shaped stuffed animal for younger kids, or a sun charm or keychain for older kids. Give the keepsake to your kids to take on overnight trips away from home, so they can squeeze it when they miss you, and know that you are loving them from afar.

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