Monday, November 16, 2009

Daisy Meeting -- Teach Kids to Sew

My 2nd year daisies are working on their firefly patch. It's a kind of strange patch system, but the basic idea is that a firefly lights the way -- so the girls learn how to do something new. Ideally, they help each other learn something new. We are working on that.

I thought that sewing would be a nice way to start working on this patch. The girls in my troop are 6 -- most have very little sewing experience, but they are starting to have the fine motor skills necessary to sew. Plus, sewing is a lifelong skill and it's something that is best learned from another person.

So, for our meeting we made beanbag turkeys. I cut brown felt into two large circles, cut out some feathers out of more felt and a little triangle felt beak. The girls started by sewing on the beak. Then we carefully placed the feathers -- explaining to the girls that you have to put the feathers on the inside so that they will be on the outside when you turn the turkey right-side out. The girls sewed the turkeys together, filled them with beans, placed googly eyes, and the adult helpers stitched them up (this was a little too difficult for a 6 year old).

The girls were SOOOO proud and busy for the whole time. I was happy to see that everyone finished and was able to bring home a complete bean bag turkey.

So -- can you teach a six year old to sew? Yep.

A four year old? It hasn't worked so well in my house, but if your child rocks a lacing card, it could work.

Should you? Definitely. Kids like to know how to do something useful -- and sewing is a skill that everyone should have.

With real needles? Yep! I told the girls "These needles are real. They are sharp. If you poke yourself, you will bleed, so be careful." And they were. If you are going to teach a real skill, the child needs to use the real tools (to a reasonable extent of course -- don't give a 6 yo a chainsaw to go cut firewood!)

And they like it? For sure! It's kept my kids busy all week :) My son has actually had more fun sewing little bean bag creations than playing video games.

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