Tuesday, February 19, 2008

I Love Felt!

My house was busy this weekend with family visiting; and I enjoyed it very much. This is one of the activities I came up with to entertain two busy toddlers. Button sewing! Felt is something I usually have on hand and my first thought was to make felt necklaces. Threading ribbon proved to be a challenge for toddlers to do.
Then I had an idea: add a button to the end of the ribbon!
And so this hand work was born.
My niece (2yrs) stayed with this activity for 35 minutes. (This is the necklace she made!)


My Little One (22 months) was not as captured by the beauty of it. Although he did sew briefly, he was more interest in watching his older cousin and brothers sled outside. I will try this with him on another day when there are less distractions. I will say that when the "BIG boys" came in from outdoors they were very interested in what we had been making inside. And soon my nine year old and my 5 year old nephew had completed their own felt "snakes".

I imagine this would be a peaceful Practical Life activity for a 3-6 classroom. I will give it to my friends at the Cornerspring Children's House and will let you know how it goes.

~~MM Original
Happy Buttoning!

8 comments:

Evenspor said...

I've been looking for a good bead-stringing type activity for a two-year-old. We'll have to try this one. I especially like it, because I have all the supplies already.

Julie said...

thanks for giving details (like age of children & how much time they played/worked.) Has it been your experience that girls enjoy sewing more than boys? I have an ACTIVE 3.5 y.o and he isn't occupied well by craft like things. He prefers to be outdoors or destroying things.

Melissa said...

That's a great idea,and I can't wait to try it. I think O might be a little too young to manipulate the button, but you never know.
Thanks!

Jennifer Howard said...

I offered this buttoning work to my Little One again today and he was not interested. And I now think the only reason he stayed with it as long as he did this weekend was because his cousin was soooo into it and he was following her lead. (She has exceptional fine motor dexterity) He's just 22 months and this is beyond his skill level I feel. We want our children to feel successful with the activities we provide....he liked teasing our cats with it today but that was about it.
As I mentioned in my post, I'll offer it to the Montessori School I work for and see how the 3-6 year olds take to it.

Thanks for the comments! Julie: I plan on posting something soon to address your "Mom of an active 3.5 year old boy" needs. Hang in there! :)
In PEACE
~~MM

plaidshoes said...

I would love to hear an update on this after they try it at your Montessori. I can think of several children at the one I work at who would really enjoy this work!

Anonymous said...

I love this idea and will start making one tonight. I'm an occupational therapist working with special needs children and they will love this new way to work on buttoning!!!

Unknown said...

Just found your blog and I love it! I made a version of this for my 2.5 year old son this afternoon and he totally loved it -- I made circles rather than squares, and he thought it looked like a caterpillar, so he turned it into a "make a roly-poly" (his word for caterpillar) game, and kept himself occupied sitting on the couch with it for at least 25 minutes while I made dinner! Thank you!!

Jennifer Perkins said...

just made one for my toddler today, hoping for that 35 minutes of entertainment you mentioned.

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