Military Special Needs Network
Proudly Supporting all Military Families with a Special Needs Dependent
Back to School with a Schultuete
A schultuete done the right way. But waaaay not my version. Or my kid, for that matter.
A schul-tu-what? It’s pronounced shool-too-tuh, and this is a 200-year old German tradition consisting of a large cone filled with treats, candy, and back-to-school supplies. It has become a tradition in our family and the girls love it.
Those of you who know me personally know that I am NOT of the crafty-kind. However, I am a firm believer in hot glue guns and duct tape, and by golly – if I can create a schultuete, so can you.
Materials Needed:
- A sheet of poster board – any color
- Scissors (I use the child safety ones because….well, that’s another blog)
- Clear tape (and possibly duct tape…depending on your mad skills)
- Scotch tape (and maybe a glue gun)
- Tissue paper
- Ribbon
- Embellishments, stickers, glitter, paint, markers, etc. to decorate and personalize
- Treats to fill the cone: school supplies (pencils, pens, erasers, little notebooks, stickers, etc), candy, and anything else you want to put in there
- Wine
Directions:
- Lay the poster board on a flat surface with the shorter side facing you.
- Roll the poster board into a large cone shape and tape the outside seam.
- Since the top (big open part) of the cone isn’t even, you’re going to cut it, so it looks like a circle. This was the step where I broke out the wine, as using scissors to cut evenly is quite the feat.
- Decoration time! Get your kids involved and have them use stickers, glitter, paint, markers, crayons, jewels, etc., and make it look great.
- Set the cone aside and lay out two sheets of tissue paper. The tissue will become the top of the schultuete.
- Tape the tissue paper along the inside edge of the cone, about an inch from the top. When you’re finished, the tissue should (haha) cover the entire inner rim and extend up and away from the top of the cone. Confession: it took 4 sheets of tissue paper for me, but that’s because I don’t follow directions very well.
- Pad the bottom of the cone’s inside with crumpled tissue paper.
- Now for the fun part: fill ‘er up with treats. I went to the Dollar Store, Target, and Justice and filled the girls’ cones up with lots of fun trinkets and a couple surprises that they had been begging me for.
- You can tie the top of the tissue paper with pretty curly ribbon, or if you’re like me, pretend that it’s an awesome torch and you’re done.
Emily loves her schultuete!
Voila!
This schultuete craft will probably never be included in the Martha Stewart magazine, but that’s OK: my girls don’t know the difference. The look on their faces as they open up and see their treats is priceless. And that makes me a Crafting Queen…even as I watch the stickers fall off the cone. Note to self: use more hot glue next time.
Happy Crafting!
~Wendy
Wendy McCoy Kruse is the CEO of Military Special Needs Network. She lives in sunny San Diego, CA with her Sailor and is a full-time mother of two: her 9-year old daughter Emily; and her 6-year old daughter Addie, who has quadriplegic Cerebral Palsy, deafness, blindness, non-verbal Autism, scoliosis, and a long list of other labels. Wendy is a member of the Southwest Region EFMP Committee and the 2013 Military Spouse of the Year for Naval Base Coronado. She frequently speaks to groups both large and small about advocacy and the ups and downs of being a military family living in the special needs world.
In her former life, Wendy was a Business Manager, Financial Planner, and high school prom queen. She has a PhD from the school of Special Needs Experience, and specializes in advocacy and general ass-kicking. Although she seems to be extremely busy, she wants to assure you that she creates plenty of time to play Candy Crush and watch very bad reality television.
Military Special Needs Network 