Children Creating

Aunt D's getting a frog for Christmas

And though she be but little she is fierce - Shakespeare and this is our Emily when she decides she is going to do something.

Christmas in our home is about the giving of homemade, or recycled/reclaimed gifts.  The thought and time that goes into planning the gift and knowing the pleasure it will bring the receiver makes Christmas Eve exciting.

This weekend Emily made her Aunt D a Christmas gift a frog stuffy to add to her collection.

The first step was to go to the computer where Emily decided on the shape of her frog.  Next she went to Grandma’s fabric stash and there she picked out her green fabric.

Using a making pencil Emily sketched out her first frog, she pinned the two layers that would make up the frog together and cut it out.  Then on to the sewing machine and the final step before stuffing her frog and here she met her first discovery the legs and toes of her frog were too thin to turn and stuff.

Undeterred she went back to the drawing board literally and started over.  This time with success.

It would have been too easy to have stopped Emily in her first design and tell her it would not work.  Instead I wondered out loud if there would be enough room for stitching and then to turn, Emily was sure there was and so she continued.  

When her first attempt failed she was encouraged immediately to think through the design and come up with a solution.

Adults often step in too soon or take over the task worried that the child will give-up and or fail.  Failure is a key step in learning as long as  "One fails forward toward success" C.S. Lewis 

Failures, repeated failures, are finger posts on the road to achievement. One fails forward toward success.C. S. Lewis

Grandma Snyder

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