David can count to 10 out loud and he can recite his ABC’s. So now I’ve been working on teaching him to read letters and numbers. I thought I’d share some things we’ve been doing, and a few resources I found.
I got the idea for this Ice Cream Cone Counting Chart from First School Preschool Activities and Crafts. I add a new scoop with each number that I introduce. It’s really simple, but David get excited every time we get to top off the cone with another scoop.
First-School has all kinds of free activities, craft ideas and printable worksheets and coloring pages. There’s something for just about any skill or topic you want to teach your pre-schooler. I’ve been using their alphabet coloring sheets to teach David his letters.
We also started memorizing the days of the week. I found several charts and printables to help with that at Easy Learning Activities. And Enchanted Learning has pages and pages of activities for teaching all aspects of time from days to months to clocks. All of these sites are free.
Since Martin Luther King Day is coming up on Monday David and I talked about that a little bit today too. Racial relations are kind of deep subject for a four-year-old. We looked at some pictures of King on line, and we talked about how God loves everyone and we treat everyone equally and with respect even if they are different from us in some way. I told him King tried to teach that to people. I wasn’t sure what kind of craft I could find to go along with that lesson. But I came across this printable to make a little Martin Luther King figure fat DLTK’s Crafts for Kids.
My printer inconveniently decided to run out of ink this morning, so that’s why the poor man is covered in stripes. I knew David wasn’t going to really sit and listen to the King’s I Have a Dream Speech, but I pulled up a video of it on the computer, and let it play in the background while we made the craft.
So there’s just a few things we’ve been doing around here. Do you have any good resources for pre-school activities on an idea of your own to share?
Well, the project sat on the corner of my kitchen table for several days, but I finally got out my sewing machine and started putting it together.
No, I’m not sewing my own bikini. It’s the beginnings of an apron. There are all these great blogs dedicated to the pursuit of cute and flirty aprons, The Apronista, Confessions of an Apron Queen, The Secret Stitch Club and many more. It looked so fun, and I wanted in on it.
Now, I read somewhere that an apron is a good, simple project for the beginner. But I think I went out and bought the most difficult apron pattern ever devised by man. I envisioned cutting out one large piece of fabric and maybe adding some ties and few embellishments.
As usual my lack of attention to detail (The reason there are so many typos in my posts. To think I once was an editor.) got the best of me. I didn’t study the pattern very well before I purchased it. I just thought the pictures on the front were pretty. When I got the pattern home I discovered that these aprons were rather complex with all sorts of bands, and trims, and a myriad of other little pieces. They’re more like dresses with out backs.
As you can see, I’ve managed to get something together that resembles the top. The trim on one side is wider than the other, because I didn’t fully understand the directions when I began the execution. Hmm, it looks better in the photo than up close.
I also forgot to change the thread in my sewing machine from white to black initially. I know, amateur mistake. Look, I still have to read the diagram on the machine every time to remember how to thread it.
Well, do you know how I took care of that white thread?
Black Sharpie.
Yep.
I colored over the white stitching with a permanent marker.
Oh, yeah!
I am so resourceful.
The ties were my next dilemma. I sewed two inside out, then I was supposed to turn them so the seams were on the inside. The stinkin’ things are so narrow, it was almost impossible to turn them. After 10 minutes of trying, I found some polka dot ribbon scraps I had, and used those. I just just have no patience for things like that.
I have to say as bad as I am at sewing, I’m having fun, and already thinking about what to make next.
After I finish this.
Next year sometime.
What have I gotten myself into?
I’ve set out to try and sew something. I don’t mean just a few stitches and some hot glue. I’m talking about really making something substantial.
I grew up watching my mom sew all the time. In fact, for the first eight or nine years of my life she made almost every piece of clothing that I wore. Then I got old enough that wearing “homemade” clothes wasn’t “cool”. I wanted to look like all the other kids who shopped at the mall.
She tried to teach me how to sew a few times when I was in junior high. Thirteen is not a good age for a mother to try and teach a daughter anything. It usually ended in some kind of argument after I got bored and frustrated.
See, I utterly lack patience when it comes to learning new things. A lot of things come easily to me, but when they doesn’t, I can’t handle it. And sewing does not come easily. Mostly because a side effect of lack of patience is lack of attention to detail. Attention to detail is kind of important when you’re sewing.
But I really do want learn how to sew. I have piles of fabric I’ve been buying up for years.
Then the other day I actually bought a pattern.
Tonight I started.
I really didn’t have a clue what I was doing. I was afraid to even cut the pattern pieces apart. I did end up cutting a piece in half that I had to tape back together.
The Aftermath of Sewing Day One
I got the pattern pinned on and most of the pieces cut out before I’d had enough for the evening. I think I did O.K. Just how closely do you have to follow that cutting line?
The whole time I kept asking myself why I didn’t pay more attention to my mother during those sewing lessons years ago?
I need to finish cutting out the pieces tomorrow, then I’ll be breaking out the sewing machine. That’s usually where it starts to get hairy for me.
I’ll have my seam ripper close at hand.
What am I making? Well, you’ll just have to wait and see. I’ll keep you posted.
