Material shelf · yarn, laces and a folded tea towel · 3 activities
Fabric, Yarn and Cloth
Three activities that run on yarn, a shoelace and a folded tea towel, all of which are already in the house.
The lace is the needle, so the end of it is the part that matters. A shoelace with a firm plastic tip goes through a hole on the first try. Sixty centimetres of thick yarn with 2 cm of sticky tape wound tightly round the end into a point does exactly the same, and so does a bootlace or garden string finished the same way. A soft end folds the moment it meets a hole and has to be re-pointed every few passes, which is where a four year old puts the card down.
For weaving, thicker yarn fills the loom faster, and on a first piece that decides everything. A chunky yarn finishes a small square in about an hour; a fine one can take four. Strips of an old t-shirt cut 2 cm wide are the fastest of all, and garden twine works too. The warp is the opposite kind of thread: thin, strong, not stretchy, so kitchen string, strong cotton or even dental floss. Wool warp sags under tension and the cloth comes out wavy.
The cloth on this shelf is a blindfold, and the softest option is the best one. A folded tea towel rests on the bridge of the nose without pressing on the eyes. Anything tight, or anything that has to be tied hard to stay put, is the usual reason a four year old says no to the whole thing, and eyes closed is the same activity anyway.
The three
Ordered by the age they suit best. Each line gives the setup time, the play time and whether anything has to be bought.
- Blindfold Rope Path Walk Your child follows a rope laid along the floor with her eyes closed, finding the turns with her feet while your voice tells her what is coming. 2 min · 5 to 10 min · household only
- Button Sewing Card Your child sews real buttons onto a punched card with a shoelace, up through one hole and down through the other, until the card is covered in buttons. 15 min, once · 10 to 20 min · household only
- Cardboard Loom Yarn Weaving Your child weaves a small square of cloth on a loom cut from a cereal box, over four or five sittings, and it takes as long as it takes. 15 min, once · 20 min or more · household only
Two of these are built on a piece of card that is doubled and glued first, which is set out on the paper and cardboard shelf.