Process over Product

A Letter to JJ (3 years, 11 months)

Danya Banya April 26, 2014 0

A letter to my daughter JJ, that I wrote when she was 3 years & 11 months old. I hope that one day, when she is old enough to want to remember days long forgotten, she will enjoy looking back on these letters of what she was like as an awesome little preschool aged girl.

Dear JJ,

I know I’ve said it before, but I think three years and eleven months old is my new favourite age.

The ‘trying three’s’ are long past, and you are now such a big girl. You often proclaim “Look how tall I am. Look how long my arms are. Look how long my legs are!”

You can do so much now. You can put on your shoes and socks. You can help match up the socks in the laundry basket. You can ride your rocking horse with one foot standing on the saddle and the other pointing into the air. You can take your own (porcelain) plate and (metal) utensils to the kitchen sink after dinner. You can share with your sister, even when she isn’t very good at sharing in return. You have the stamina to walk (almost) the length of the zoo. And you have the self discipline to (usually) stop running ahead when I call out to you.

You’ve become a bit of a “goody two-shoes”. You know all the rules, and you (generally) stick by them. You say your pleases, your thank yous and your excuse mes.

I’ve read about this golden age between toddlerhood and adolescence where kids are just generally awesome. And it feels like you’re there. It feels like you are the most awesomest little girl in the whole wide world (well, to me anyway).

You’ve settled into the new preschool year, and have made some really good friends. Friends that you’ll go on to school with next year. Friends that you might, hopefully, keep for life. You’ve starting to be invited to birthday parties and playdates. You’re learning about sharing, compromising, being a polite guest and being a polite host. It’s so lovely to watch these connections blossom.

You chatter non-stop. About this and that. About your friends, and the games you play. About stories that we’ve read or TV shows that you’ve watched (Rainbow Magic and Octonauts are still your favourites). You sing songs and know all the actions. And you ask questions. You inquire.

“Mummy, I want to talk some more about the dog catcher in their vans and the pound. Can you tell me more about it please? Are there rabbits and pigs at the pound? What do they do with dogs that are naughty? Do they go to gaol? Can we take (our cat) Charlie to the pound and swap her for a dog?”

You’re starting to play word games. You’re fascinated with rhyming words at the moment, and are constantly trying to think up new rhyming combinations. “Mum! Cone and phone – they rhyme!” or “Mum! “Sally and sand both start with ‘s’ – they have the same special letter!”

You’re also really into counting. You can count to 19 without help, and well beyond that if we give you some gentle prompts at the decade transitions. You are still learning to recognise written numbers however, so we have been playing lots of number recognition games. You love it, as long as you don’t ever lose.

Because, you see, you’re (more than) a tad competitive. (I wonder where you get that from, lol…) I can easily convince you to run upstairs to clean your teeth, or tidy up all the Duplo blocks, or scrabble to get into your car seat first, just by telling you it’s a race. If ask “Who wants morning tea” you’ll call out “Me!” in a mini-second, and then explain that you should receive the first piece of mandarin because you replied first. Bee is too young to mind coming second, but I still let her win sometimes because losing gracefully is an important lesson.

We’ve been doing lots and lots and lots of arts and crafts these last few months. You prefer activities where you have a lot of creative freedom, because you don’t like the feeling of not being able to copy something correctly. You set a very high standard for yourself, and if you can’t get something exactly right, then you’d rather not attempt it at all.

It’s concerning that you don’t have the self-confidence to be able to try and fail. We’ve been working on this in a number of ways. Firstly, we’re doing lots of play that also secretly works on your fine motor skills, so that you’ll have the dexterity and hand eye coordination to be able to do things that you believe that you should be able to.

We’re also doing lots of child-led arts and crafts where there is no “right” or “wrong”. I often craft along side you, where I can demonstrate a technique and you have the choice to copy or not. Often you won’t copy at the time, but will try the technique out later where there is no perceived pressure for you to get it “right”.

Another activity that seems to have no bounds is sensory play, with various types of doughs, sand and water. There is no right or wrong with this sort of play and another bonus is that it’s fun across various age groups, so you and Bee can play separately or together.

And lastly, I’m trying to introduce the concept that experimenting, documenting and analysing failures is an important part of the scientific process and not something to be avoided. (The inner geek in me is secretly loving these discussions as well).

We’re in party planning mode for your birthday party, but I’ll leave all the details of that for your next letter.

And so I’ll finish off by saying I love you my sweet JJ, and you’ll always be my winner.

xx Mummy

Previous letters to JJ:
A Letter to JJ (3 years, 5 months)
A Letter to JJ (3 years, 3 months)
A Letter to JJ (3 years)
A Letter to JJ (2 years, 9 months)
A Letter to JJ (2 years, 7 months)
A Letter to JJ (2 years, 6 months)
A Letter to JJ (2 years, 5 months)
A Letter to JJ (2 years, 4 months)

Categories Parenting, Preschoolers Tags Letter to JJ, Process over Product

Kid-Made Chocolate Crackle Easter Eggs with DIY Painted Foil {and on encouraging kids to plan}

Danya Banya April 15, 2014 26

Inspired by an Egg Creative Challenge, I explained to my daughter JJ (3 years and 10 months old) that one of my ‘computer friends’ was inviting kids around the world to do something with eggs, BUT the catch is that it has to be the kid’s idea.

I asked JJ what she wanted to do.

Initially JJ thought she might make make sculptures using plastic eggs, toothpicks and playdough. She had lots of fun playing with these items, and did come up with two sort-of egg people. I was encouraging, but inwardly I thought that there wasn’t the sense of process or accomplishment that this challenge calls for. She spent more time role-playing with her egg people, rather than constructing them.

I thought to myself that perhaps, at 3 years and 10 months old, she isn’t quite up for a creative challenge like this just yet.

Now – don’t get me wrong, role-playing is awesome! Actually all play is awesome, which is why I didn’t redirect her back to the challenge at hand, and instead let her play. But in this instance, it does show that she doesn’t yet have the organisational skills and self-discipline to create a plan and carry it though to achieve an outcome. In her defence, I probably rushed too quickly to gather supplies and get her started, rather than helping her to formulate a clear plan in the first place. But nevermind, I put the creative challenge idea aside thinking that we could try again another time.

And then a few days later, JJ asked for a chocolate Easter egg. She specifically wanted a chocolate Easter egg that is wrapped in coloured wrapping, just like a store-bought one. She knew that we didn’t have any in the cupboard (as we don’t tend to keep ‘party food’ in our house), but she asked if we could make one please. I explained that I didn’t know how to make chocolate eggs, but perhaps we could make chocolate crackles in the shape of eggs? She was adamant that they needed to be wrapped, in coloured wrappings. So I suggested that we could paint some foil.

She thought this was a brilliant idea! She connected the dots between our earlier activity, and said that she wanted to make chocolate crackle Easter eggs, wrapped in coloured foil for Mummy’s “computer friends” to see. And thus we were delivered a second chance at this challenge!

This time, I wanted to help JJ to plan effectively. So, I didn’t rush in and gather materials. Instead I asked her what her plan was. I asked her what steps she would need to take. I helped her develop a rough timeline. I gave her a brand new (mint-scented) notebook, and explained that this book is her special writing book, and I asked her to write out her plan. She baulked at first (probably because she is only three and doesn’t know how to write), so I wrote the heading “Chocolate Crackle Easter Eggs In Painted Foil” across the top of the first page, and gave her the pen. She took over from there. She narrated as she wrote. Her notes took up several pages. They didn’t always go top to bottom or left to right, and they certainly weren’t legible, but the outcome was the same. She had formulated and written down a firm idea. A plan.

Step 1: Wash the plastic eggs

This step was my idea – lol. And please ignore the letters, they were from a letter matching activity we did earlier.

Step 2: Make the chocolate crackle mix

(Recipe at bottom of post). JJ helped to measure and weigh the quantities of the various ingredients (which is great meaningful maths practice). I melted the chocolate sauce over the stove top, and then JJ helped to mix it all together.

Step 3: Put the chocolate crackle mix into the plastic egg moulds and refrigerate

With my help, JJ filled the first five of the moulds. I did the last five or so myself.

Step 4: Paint some foil and allow to dry

I followed this colored aluminium foil tutorial to make the foil paint (except that I used liquid watercolours for the red & purple instead of food colouring). JJ and I painted alongside each other; she much prefers creative pursuits when we do them together. She painted the middle three (below), taking a very long time to make sure that she covered every tiny part of the foil square. I painted the other eight alongside her in about the same time frame (although my efforts were much more slapdash).

I really like how they turned out. You can still see the shiny silver foil through the even the brightest colours. (I’m already thinking up projects where we can use this technique again!)

Step 5: Take the chocolate crackle eggs out of the moulds and wrap with the painted foil

JJ and I had a production line going for this step. I would remove the chocolate crackle egg from the mould (which was quite tricky), and then pass it to JJ who would wrap it and then place it in a bowl. So in effect, JJ wrapped all ten eggs by herself.

Step 6: Enjoy the feeling of accomplishment

The next day JJ brought this bowl of eggs to a playdate with some of her friends, and enjoyed offering them around. (I didn’t take a photo at the playdate, so I thought I’d include a shot of Bee licking the spoon instead.)

Didn’t she do a good job!

It was so interesting to watch the difference in JJ’s attitude between the first half-hearted attempt at egg sculptures to this second full blown effort of planning and execution. I think the difference in attitude was partly because she was keen to eat the results, and partly because she felt personally invested in the process. She kept pausing and writing notes in her special writing book as we went along. As you can see by the outfit changes, this activity was done in three distinct stages over several days, and JJ was enthusiastic the entire time.

So I’ll happily flip flop on my earlier statement. At 3 years and 10 months, JJ has shown that she does have the organisational skills and self-discipline to create a plan and carry it though to achieve an outcome. Especially if it involves chocolate. And especially if I help by not jumping in too quickly.

And here is the chocolate crackles recipe for anyone who wants to try these at home! (This is a slightly richer version to my previous chocolate crackles recipe).

150g dark chocolate (good quality)

100g butter

4Tbsp golden syrup

75g of wholegrain mixed cereals. (I used 25g Allbran {crushed}, 20g puffed millet, 20g puffed corn, 10g organic puffed kamut.)

Melt the chocolate, butter and golden syrup together over a double boiler (or you can use the microwave at a low setting in short bursts). Pour over the dry ingredients and mix until combined. Scoop into moulds and put in the fridge to set. Remove from the moulds, and wrap in painted foil. Enjoy!

xx Danya

Categories Art & Crafts For Kids, Easter, Food, Imaginative Play, Parenting, Preschoolers Tags Kids in the Kitchen, Process over Product, Writing

Toddler and preschooler sensory play with shaving cream and mirrors

Danya Banya March 23, 2014 16

JJ (3 years and 8 months) had so much fun drawing on a mirror recently, that we thought we’d give painting on mirrors a try… with shaving cream!

Shaving cream is always a hit in our house (we’ve played with it here, here, here and loads of other times as well). The kids love watching it foam like magic out of the can – it’s so soft and fluffy! And it has that lovely clean smell which adds another sensory aspect to their play.

Bee (at 17 months) has played with shaving cream before, but this is the first time that she’s really explored using the mirrors in this way. She took to it straight away – admiring her reflection before dabbing and painting over it.

I was quite impressed that both girls painted with the paint brushes for several whole minutes before abandoning them to a more sensory finger painting experience – which of course was always going to be the end result of this sort of play.

You’ve got to love activities that:

toddlers and preschoolers can enjoy together
provide sensory experiences that kids crave
are quick to set up
and use cheap materials that you probably already have on hand. (You could use your bathroom mirror if you don’t have small shaving mirrors like these.)

Plus shaving cream is surprisingly easy to clean up afterwards. I mean, it’s designed to wash off in water! You might need to add a touch of mirror spray, and then, Bob’s your uncle!

xx Danya

Categories Outdoors, Play Ideas, Preschoolers, Sensory Play, Toddlers Tags Process over Product

The Very Hungry Caterpillar inspired cardboard roll paintings

Danya Banya March 13, 2014 12

Remember the Very Hungry Caterpillar toy that I made out of toilet paper rolls the other day that JJ didn’t want to make? Well, I thought I would try a different tack – so I suggested we paint a Very Hungry Caterpillar using the cardboard rolls instead of a paintbrush.

JJ (3 years and 9 months) loves to paint, especially if it involves painting with some kind of twist, so she was jumped at the painting with toilet paper rolls idea.

I like to paint alongside the kids. It allows me to show them new techniques, without overly directing or correcting their own creative process. On this occasion I painted what I reckon (IMHO) is a reasonably respectable interpretation of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. It ended up looking like this.

Bee went for a more abstract creation. She had an absolute blast, first with the painting, and then drawing with the markers. For 18 months, she is such a creative soul!

Whilst I don’t think Bee was intentionally painting and drawing anything in particular, she was certainly copying technique. Art is such an awesome activity for toddlers. There is immediate cause and effect. Learning to hold a cardboard tube or marker is all great fine motor skills practice for this age group.

JJ declared that she wasn’t painting a Very Hungry Caterpillar after all. She was painting a Wing-Shaped Attapillar. She spent a lot more time imagining the characteristics of her Wing-Shaped Attapillar than she did actually painting. She decided it didn’t need feet drawn on, as it would slide along the ground instead.

I asked if she wanted to write ‘Wing-Shaped Attapillar’ on her painting, but she said that she didn’t know how to write yet. So instead she dictated to me what she wanted to have written down. Then she then declared herself competent to write it down herself after all. Her ‘writing’ contained more intricate details about the Attapillar than what she had originally dictated. (Self-directed pre-writing practice for the win!)

xx Danya

In case you missed it, you might also want to check out my The Very Hungry Caterpillar craft, or if you like painting without brushes, here’s a painting we made using vehicles instead.

Categories Art & Crafts For Kids, Preschoolers, Toddlers, Toilet Paper Rolls Tags Process over Product, Recycled or Upcycled

Two ingredient bread dough – that kids can make, play with, and eat!

Danya Banya March 12, 2014 11

Super easy bread dough that kids can make, from just two ingredients! Fun sensory dough to play and eat.

Who said you can’t have your sensory dough and eat it too?

This is an easy and healthy recipe for bread dough that kids enjoy making, playing with, baking and eating. And it’s made from two basic ingredients that you probably already have in your pantry.

Yes, just two! Told you it was easy…

To make an easy bread dough all you need is:

1 cup of self-raising flour
2/3 cup of Greek yogurt

(If you don’t have self raising flour, then you can make your own version by adding 1 teaspoon of baking powder to 1 cup of plain flour. You could also substitute natural yogurt instead of Greek yogurt if you prefer.)

Getting the kids to help measure out the quantities is fantastic meaningful maths practice, incorporating counting, measuring, number recognition and volume concepts.

Then it’s time to get their hands busy! Mixing, squashing, squishing, kneading, moulding, squeezing, pulling, pushing, rolling, pinching, patting, flattening. A great work out for the tiny fine motor muscles in their fingers and hands. And it’s such delightfully messy, sticky, gooey play.

(Having dough covered hands is sensory overload for some kids. You might get asked to wash hands mid-play like we did. Once their hands are clean, they’ll probably be ready to get them messy all over again.)

This bread dough can be baked just like this, but we thought it would be fun to add a few decorations and extend the play. We used fruit nuggets, sultanas, chia seeds, banana chips and blueberries, along with our cookie cutter stash and some silicon cupcake moulds.

There was lots of discussions about what to make, and how to decorate it. The gingerbread cookie cutters were popular, with sultanas being used for eyes, blueberries for buttons and chia seeds for hair. The cupcake moulds were also hit, with abstract designs on top. A few of the decorations bypassed the dough and were popped straight into hungry mouths.

This is an open-ended activity where kids can choose how elaborately they would like to decorate their bread, which makes it suitable for a range of ages. We had 3, 4 and 8 year olds all playing happily together. Edible doughs are a good idea for babies and toddlers too who may be still in the mouthing phase.

When their creations are ready, just pop into a moderate 180 degrees Celsius (356 degrees Fahrenheit) until they are brown. Here’s a before and after photo, where you can see that not only does the colour change, but the bread rises slightly in the oven too.

Afterwards, there’s that special kind of silence which means everyone is enjoying their snack. #nomnom

We’ve made this bread dough lots of times (especially when I have yogurt in the fridge that is nearing expiry). It’s a great for breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea – any time really. There’s no artificial colours, flavours, preservatives (and if you leave out the nuggets, there’s also no added sugar). It’s also egg-free and nut-free, which is great for our friends and family members who have egg and nut allergies.

The recipe is based on Dairy Australia’s Easy Yogurt Dough. Usually we make it with wholemeal (whole wheat) flour, adding that extra bit of fibre and flavour. Either way, they are best eaten warm straight from the oven, perhaps with a little bit of butter.

Here’s some we made in a caterpillar shape. Seems we’re on a caterpillar roll lately… Boom tish!

I’ll be linking this up as part of Lemon Lime Adventure’s 12 Months of Sensory Dough challenge. Pop over for lots more edible dough inspiration! I’ll also be bringing you an edible peanut butter dough recipe shortly, so stay tuned…

Check out some of our other sensory dough posts:
(click on the picture to see the full post).

Make your own Play Snow for winter play without the temperature

Backyard sensory play party with Moon Sand cupcakes

Hand strengthening with lemon scented play dough

These, and other fun ideas are all over on our Play Ideas page.

Are you on Pinterest? See what we’re pinning here:

Visit Danya Banya’s profile on Pinterest.

And while I have you, I’d also like to take the opportunity to announce the winner of our Peppa Pig – The Big Splash competition for Life’s Little Treasures Foundation, where I asked ‘What gigantic cartoon person would you (or your kids) most like to meet and why?’

Congratulations Theresa, you won with your comment “Zoe would love to meet a life size Care Bear. She’s into all the vintage characters which are making a come back recently such as Care Bears, Strawberry Shortcake and My Little Pony. Luckily I held on to some of my original toys. Your girls must have loved meeting Peppa! They are growing so fast!”

Congrats again Theresa, please check your inbox (or spam folder) for a message from me.

xx Danya

Categories Food, Kindergarteners, Popular, Preschoolers, Sensory Play, Toddlers Tags Healthy, Kids in the Kitchen, Process over Product

Invite your child to draw on a mirror…

Danya Banya February 20, 2014 10

and let them draw a new hairstyle (she chose red curls)

Drawing a new red curly hairstyle with texta on a mirror

Mirror drawing with texta - easy preschooler activity

I’ve been inspired by all the mirror play I’ve been seeing on some of my favourite Aussie blogs lately.

We’ve had a mirror hung low on the wall of our playroom for a few months now. Studied have shown that when children can see their reflection whilst they are playing, they are better behaved. I’m not sure that it’s working in our case (lol), but it certainly adds another dimension to the girls’ play.

But I’d never really thought about playing directly with mirrors before, until I met Kate from An Everyday Story, who introduced me to the Reggio Emilia parenting approach and their focus on authentic open-ended materials for play, in particular using mirrors in all sorts of play situations.

So when I saw some small mirrors in the local discount shop for $2.50 each, I picked up a couple. I’ve got so many play ideas for them! But we started off with a really simple idea – drawing on mirrors with regular washable markers.

(Before we started, we had a little chat about mirrors, how they are made of glass and are breakable. I find that JJ enjoys the responsibility of being allowed to play with fragile items and, given prior warning and the right environment, can be trusted to play with them very gently.)

I didn’t tell JJ exactly what to draw – I let her decide for herself. She immediately started drawing big swirls, and declared that she was drawing “new hair”.

Here she is holding up her finished ‘portrait’.

And the best bit? With a wet wipe she could wipe the surface clean easily herself and start all over again. This was a quick and easy activity that we’ll definitely be doing again (and again, and again).

Rachel (from Racheous: Loveable Learning) and I must have been channelling each other because she did a similar activity called Mirror Portraits, except she had the brilliant idea to use a special markers (that really make the pictures pop)! Or for more messy mirror play, Debs from Learn with Play at Home let her kids paint on their hallway mirror. And for those who want to play with mirrors without the mess, check out Kate’s beautiful Reggio: Mirrors Pinterest board.

xx
Danya

Categories Art & Crafts For Kids, Preschoolers, Process Art Tags Process over Product

Stick People Community

Danya Banya February 11, 2014 24

About a year ago I made this stick family after watching this G+ hangout on 10 Stick Crafting Ideas. As you can see there were seven original family members. Some of the googly eyes fell off, but in general they’ve held up quite well after a year of play.

(And yes, the fifth one along just might be dressed in some upcycled undies. No judging!)

But a few weeks ago I decided it would be fun to give our stick family some neighbours. We could have a whole community! So I set up some sticks from our backyard, various fabric scraps, googly eyes in a few sizes, a couple of balls of wool, scissors, glue (which I’d poured into a paper cup for easier access) and an old paint brush. And then I asked JJ if she wanted to help.

Do ya reckon she’s keen? Lol.

They are fairly simple to make. JJ and I have slightly differing techniques, but they both yield similar results. Here’s how JJ makes them.

JJ cut a small amount of scrap fabric (very carefully, using grown up scissors). Then she painted glue onto the back of the googly eyes and stuck them on. She painted glue onto the top of the stick and carefully wound some wool around for hair. She painted the back of the fabric and wrapped it around the middle of the stick for clothes. And finally she painted some glue onto the stick and added a small piece of wool for a smile.

JJ made loads of them. She pretended that she was a real toy maker in a factory, or perhaps an elf in Santa’s workshop (and suggested this is what she might be when she grows up). She personifying each doll as she went, making them slightly different to the one before. I was really surprised at how this project captured her attention. She stayed crafting for well over an hour.

There might have been a little bit of dressing up roleplaying with the fabrics as well. 🙂

And not to be left out, Bee got into the crafting action once she’d woken from her nap. We skipped the googly eyes as they are too fiddly for her at the moment. But she was able to stick a few pieces of fabric onto her stick with very little help.

It was Bee’s idea to hold up her stick afterwards and pose for a photo. Isn’t that adorable! She’s seen JJ pose with her creations before, so evidently Bee was proud of what she’d made and thought it was photo-worthy!

Here is the whole community, waiting for the glue to dry.

As you can see, the original stick family have all been to the salon and are now sporting new hair cuts! Oh, and the optometrist has fixed their eyes where appropriate too.

And now they have lots of friendly neighbours to go on play dates with (and perhaps even have a much coveted sleep-over).

Now you may ask: why? Why bother to make stick people? You can buy pretty dolls from the shops cheaply enough…

I’m glad you asked. 🙂

Well, firstly, making things with fiddly pieces like googly eyes and cutting things with scissors both work on fine motor skills. They develop hand eye coordination, and work the small muscles in the fingers and hand that will be needed for writing later on.
JJ was also able to express her creativity in making her stick people. Each one is unique. There are variations in hair colour and design, colour and shape fabric for clothes, facial expressions (including using natural features of the sticks for noses in some cases).
She gets to play with them twice – once in the process of making them, and then again as part of her regular doll play.
Since they are made from mostly natural or upcycled material (all the fabrics were upcycled), they are good for the environment.
Gathering sticks encourages JJ to go outside and experience nature. (Read more reasons to gather natural craft materials here.)
As our stick people were made from things we already had on hand, they are effectively free.
We can add more neighbours to the community whenever we want to!
I think they are way cooler than cookie-cutter store-bought dolls. Don’t you?

Have you made stick people yet? And do you upcycle your underwear?

xx Danya

For more stick play, you might also like Painting With (and On) Sticks.

Or for more nature craft ideas, here’s over 120 Ways to Play, Craft & Learn with Flora.

Categories Art & Crafts For Kids, Imaginative Play, Nature, Outdoors, Preschoolers, Toddlers Tags Process over Product, Recycled or Upcycled

Make a Nature Mobile

Danya Banya February 10, 2014 9

I keep seeing gorgeous nature mobiles pop up in my Pinterest feed, and I’ve been itching to make one with JJ for a while now. So when I noticed that this purple flowering plant (does anyone know it’s name?) needed cutting back, I thought we could make creative use of those beautiful leaves and flowers.

To make our nature mobile, we used 2 large darning needles, green cotton, green twine, a large stick, smaller twigs, a handful of leaves and flowers.

I cut a length of cotton (less than a metre), tied off one end to a small twig, and threaded a needle onto the other end. Then I repeated this process, so that JJ and I had a needle / thread / twig set each.

(JJ, at 3 years & 8 months, was able to handle a large darning needle quite well. If you are concerned your child isn’t ready for this, then a blunter wool needle would also work.)

And then we both set to work threading. We often craft alongside each other. I find it creates a sense of camaraderie. It also helps me to stop micromanaging JJ’s crafting experience, whilst allowing me to introduce techniques that JJ can copy if she chooses. (Often she watches but refuses to copy. And then on another crafting session, she’ll try out the new technique of her own accord).

On this occasion, I threaded the needle through each leaf twice, whereas JJ chose to thread the needle through each leaf only once.

(Threading is fantastic fine motor skill practice for this age – but JJ doesn’t realise that she’s secretly developing pre-writing skills and hand strength while she’s creating – so let’s just keep that between us OK?)

JJ made one strand of leaves & flowers, and I made two stands of just leaves, and I tied them all onto the larger stick. I suggested making more strands, but JJ declared the mobile finished, so I tied green twine across the top for hanging.

She was quite impressed with the results!

I thought it might look good hung on our stairwell, or above the laundry sliding door (both spots where we’d hung our mistletoes at Christmas), but JJ was adamant that the door knob of our front door was the perfect place. I think she preferred this because it was at a height where she could put it up and take it down herself.