Learning is fun: Letter J

After watching me spend a great deal of time working on Caleb's Halloween costume, Abby has become pretty interested in sewing. Well actually...she's become really interested in unwinding as much of my thread as possible. But that's a start.

So for our Letter J activity, I decided to let her try her hand at some domestic engineering with a little sewing project of her own. Armed with some scissors and a hole punch, I created the front and back of a pretty simple "jacket" that she could stitch together. I discovered that her fine motor skills are not quite refined enough to thread the yarn consistently into the little holes, and I also learned that she can be pretty darn stubborn about accepting assistance. Once I convinced her that I was simply going to "help" her and was not going to take it away and do it for her, she happily held onto the tip of the yarn as I put it into the hole, then she would reach around back to pull it through. It was a tedious and time-consuming process, and she loved it.

Once our jacket was finished, I had her dress our Letter J, which prompted her to exclaim "J's wearing a jacket! J's nice and cozy." When I asked her why the J needed a jacket, she paused for a second and then replied, "J's cold. It's cold today." (As our weather has cooled off, we've started most mornings by bundling up a little more than usual. I always explain to Abby that "it's cold today" and she needs to dress warmly so she'll stay "nice and cozy." Amazing what they pick up on...)

We ended our craft with the application of googly eyes and a smile, which Abby seemed to agree was a nice finishing touch.