Monday, March 30, 2009

So many decisions...................




This morning I walked into my 5 year old daughter's bedroom to find her sitting on the floor talking with her stuffed friend Farfee. I'm not really sure how you spell that but that is what she has named her friend. Not even sure if it is a boy or girl. Either way, she was asking Farfee to make a choice about what kind of collar he wanted and in front of her were several different bracelets laid out in front of the poor stuffed toy. How was Farfee to decide? Well Farfee could not as Meliah talked in a high squeeky voice for the little stuffed animal.

So I intervened in her fun play and offered to sew Farfee the collar of his/her choice when she got home from school this afternoon. So the above photos are the end result. She wanted a rainbow and this is what she chose from my ribbon case. (I only let her select from the older ribbons that I could part with) LOL
So I took the ribbon and added a couple of rings, sewed the ends shut and then let my daughter place some jewels along the collar. From the looks of the even spacing she is just a anal as her mommy...........although I would have established a pattern.
So share a story you have about intervening in a child's play and then moving on from that to a crafting project if you have one! Or anything else related!

4 comments:

michelle said...

Oh that is just priceless. . .

TesoriTrovati said...

Just wait until she gets to school and starts having "projects" come home...since my son has been in 3rd grade we have done no less than three extensive research/art/literature/diorama/creative projects. And at our school it is called a "family project" meaning that they accept and encourage family involvement as a way to learn. It has been fun but exhausting. I set the bar a bit too high I suppose with the 3rd grade solar system project. Whenever he comes home and they tell them a suggestion...like make the planets out of styrofoam balls!...I always stop him and ask him to think of something no one else will think of. So that year we did the planets out of Fimo and put it on a beaded wire (to simulate the stars) in a shoebox that folds up neatly under his bed. There certainly were a lot of styrofoam balls that year, but ours was truly unique! Now...what am I going to do to top that next year with my daughter?!?!!!?
Enjoy the day!
Erin

miggyswamp said...

Haha, I remember giving Meliah Nanook, who now appears to be named Farfee. Personally, I think Farfee is much more original name than the cliche "Nanook" for a Husky. I'm glad she is enjoying Farfee so much, and the little androgynous pup seems to be thoroughly happy with its lovely new collar.

Gayles1 said...

Hi Lisa- I provided home daycare for over twenty years so I could stay home with our children when they were young. I was once caring for a young boy who, according to the Pre-K Teachers, had trouble cutting with scissors. The paper seemed to always slip out and he had a weakness in his hands. His mother asked me to help him” learn to cut better”
Bringing out the play dough always created a few smiles at my house. The play clay available in the stores comes in bright colors with fancy (and expensive) kits and tools. My crafting skills aren’t as wonderful as yours, Lisa…but I’m pretty good in the kitchen and frugal too. I whipped up a batch of homemade playdough. Now, forget the fancy plungers and character kits sold in the store. I used a shoe box or Plastic storage box to create a special kit the kids l loved. From the kitchen drawers, you’ll be sure to find some safe gadgets to inspire creative dough play. My kit contains two small rolling pins, some rounded plastic knives, spoons, melon ball gadgets and a collection of plastic lids and cookie cutters. Boys and girls love rolling out the dough and cutting out the different shapes, gingerbread boys and animal shapes. They used the melon ball utensil to form meatballs and cut strips of dough with the plastic knives. I always searched neighborhood yard sales for cookies cutters and plastic adding to my homemade fun dough collection

Most importantly….I added some child sized scissors to the playdough kit. Next, I rolled the dough into long ropes and asked the little guy to cut them into small pieces. The idea was a good one. The child’s cutting improved; he gained some strength in his hands and most importantly, loved the activity.


If you’ve not tried it…..make some homemade play dough. It’s easy to prepare a few large batches. It works well for me because I usually have a “large batch” of kids in the yard too.
Gather these ingredients: Flour, Salt, Food Coloring, vegetable oil and Cream of Tartar
In a two quart saucepan add 1 cup of flour, 4 teaspoons of cream of tartar and 1 cup of salt. Mix dry ingredients together. Measure 2 cups of water (with two drops of the liquid food coloring of your choice added) Drop in two tablespoons of vegetable oil and stir to mix. Add the liquids slowly to the dry ingredients in the saucepan and stir till combined. Heat over medium heat stirring often until the dough begins to pull away from the side of the pan, and becomes a bit dry. Remove from heat and place on counter or board. Knead until smooth and cool. Keep cooled dough in plastic containers or plastic bags to keep soft and “playable”.
Enjoy.