Monday night we called the wee ones at 8:30 as they were getting ready for bed. Michelle answered the phone.
Me: Do the kids want to spend the night and go for a late swim.
Michelle: Let me ask. “Do you guys want to go swimming at Gammy’s and spend the night?”
Wee Ones: ((no words, just screams and shrills of delight))
Within 10 minutes they were over, we swam for a couple hours, made s’mores, then crawled into bed.
In the morning they got up one at a time. First Bug came down at 6:00 a.m. (And me without caffine yet!) I introduced him to the online sight Pottermore and opened an account for him. He has read the first 4 novels, and was thrilled to read more about Harry’s world.
Pixie came down next. I was working on some embellishments for the Little Guy’s quilt. She wanted a quilting project, too. So after some discussion, she decided she wanted to make a dog bed for one of her stuffed friends, picked out a lovely rainbow print, and got to quilting.
Finally, Fairy came down. Of course she needed to busy her hands, too. She decided to quilt a head band, and chose a beautiful celestial print.
We spent the day stitchin’ and swimming and reading Harry Potter. Isn’t summer just grand?
I must admit I spend half my time on Wee Folk Art enjoying the crafts and articles, and the other half, coveting “Gammy”. My relationship with my mother, thus my children’s relationship with their grandmother, couldn’t be more different. She wants to “play” with me, and seems to just tolerate my children. Because of that, we see her very seldom although we live close. Oh how I wish they had a Gammy that loved my children dearly and wanted to spend time with them. I do hope they realize what a gift it is 🙂 Thanks for the link to Pottermore. I didn’t even know it existed. When my son gets up, we’ll sit down and check it out together. He is 12 and loves Harry, too!!!
Yep. I’ve always want to be adopted by Kimara! I can’t imagine how awesome it must be to have someone in your life that could teach you how to do creative things and to be so available. So I guess I’ve coveted her too 😉
It sounds like you had a perfect day. I can’t wait until I can share the HP books with my own kids. My husband and I would take off in the car for a day (before kids) and listen to the books on CD or sit through a hurricane listening to them.
I would love to start my two little ones in sewing. What is a good age? I have a 6 and 4 year old. I don’t quilt but garment sew. I have been thinking of having them try the little gnome clothes for the wooden pegs. I am just not sure about the needles. Those are a little scary to hand to a little one or at least to my wild two.
When I taught preschool, we had a basket of sewing. In the basket there were burlap type materials and large, blunt tipped, yarn needles. It was a wonderful way to introduce children to "needle and thread". They would sit around, chatting, while stitching. It was ALL about the process.
Although there are many that may disagree with me, there isn't a hard and fast rule as to at what age a child should be developmentally ready to learn a task. Pixie and Fairy were around four when they first picked up a needle and thread and knitting needles. They are around it all day long, and it was natural that they would want to try.
The fact that you refer to your wee ones as "wild" might indicate that they are still busy developing motor control, and using a needle and thread might be too tedious a task yet. BUT… you won't know until you try.
Although people often think sewing on small things is the way to get children started, sometimes trying to make the small stitches required to make small items is more difficult that sewing a slightly larger project. When the girls first started sewing, they did free form stitching. They just "doodled" with thread and solid fabrics that were stretched in a hoop. Again… process. They learned the up and down motion, worked on controlling stitch length, AND how to work with the thread so it wasn't constantly tangling. In the beginning, I threaded the needles for them. When young children are sewing, I always thread the needle and tie the ends together so they are actually sewing with 2 pieces of thread. The main reason I do that is so the needle can't slip of the end of the thread and get lost. The needle is basically in a loop. Also, before threading the needle, slide the thread across a piece of wax. This will help prevent tangling.
I would encourage you to try sewing with your girls BUT be ready to joyfully put the project away if they are not interested or if it becomes frustrating. One of the worse things we can do is the rush a child. When a child is ready to learn a task, it should bring them joy and a sense of accomplishment. Good luck and have fun. It is wonderful to raise crafters. You can form your own little crafting guild right in your home 🙂