The girls have been wanting to do all kinds of needle work lately, but since we're packing to move, we don't have many options to choose from with all our stuff in boxes and basically living out of suitcases at the moment. So, I had an idea that would make a compact, easy, ongoing project: free-style embroidery. We used monk's cloth because the loose weave is so easy to work with, and perle embroidery thread since it does not try to come apart as it is manipulated. I chose chenille needles because they are larger and easier to manipulate for little fingers but are still very real and pointed. Everything we need fits in a bag or basket, and we can take it wherever we need to.
I only showed them how to push through and pull the thread; I gave them no further instruction. Each kiddo got assigned their own color of thread/floss for sake of ease and identification.
I had no idea this whole embroidery thing would take off so quickly with the kiddos! Even the two and a half year old is thrilled to be doing it. The olders made designs, the youngers had a blast with the motor skills -- all had feeling of accomplishment. I expect this will be a craft/skill that we can easily build on in coming years. It's an excellent Waldorf-y handwork kind of thing.
It's very inexpensive in materials (having a teacher id makes it even cheaper), and they are liking their handwork. The squares they are doing are getting more prolific, and I might sew them all together into a kind of wall hanging art thing after I put some iron-on fusible interfacing on the back of each square to make it more stable.
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