The Road to Success-Part 1

by Debbie Vechter

Christmas is just around the corner so I’m sure we’re all thinking about what we can make for our children, grandchildren, nephews, nieces and friends’ children. I think everyone would agree that education is really important to ensure success in life. This is the time when we sewing and embroidery enthusiasts can combine the talents and creativity that we have and incorporate them into creating Christmas gifts for the young ones while encouraging their actual learning.

Education, though, doesn’t begin at school. It begins at home and starts as soon as the baby is born. The baby is learning everyday and we must do all we can to provide the learning opportunities. We must make it a priority to guide our child’s and grandchild’s learning, and thus guide them towards success in life.

Providing early learning materials need not be costly. Luckily, this gives us moms, grannies and aunties a chance to get creative and use our talents in sewing to make really great quality learning materials for our early learners.

This leaves the question of ‘what can I make for my child to stimulate learning’. Well, you’re in luck! In Parts 1 & 2 of THE ROAD TO SUCCESS I will outline several quick and easy projects that you can easily make using your sewing and embroidery skills. These projects can then be used to play with and teach your early learner. These projects are designed to keep the little ones physically active with fun physical activities to build muscle, flexibility, eye-hand coordination, good judgment, accurate reactions, and quick thinking. At the same time they provide for brain stimulation and use of cognitive skills. Keeping up a conversation at the same time will help to develop language skills.

One of baby’s first toys is a ball. What could be nicer than making a cute, brightly colored LOOPY RIBBON ball for baby and what nicer way is there of using up all your sewing scraps? It is easy to make your own without a pattern as making balls is not too difficult. Simply cut 6 ovals that are pointed, not round, on each end. Sew them together lengthwise, inserting loops of ribbons of different textures and patterns into the seams as you sew the ovals together. Stuff with poly stuffing and put a little bell into the center for sound. Sew to close the opening where you stuffed it.

Another cute, but similar project is a TINY TAGGIE BLANKIE. Again it is simply made from brightly colored scraps or scraps of Minky.

(see steps at end of article)

These two early learning activity toys are designed to stimulate the development of motor skills and sensory stimulation of babies. The fun toys on the tiny taggie blankie tempt baby to explore sounds, textures and movement activities. The bright colors and patterns add further appeal in visual and tactile stimulation for baby as he reaches, touches, and explores.

Early learning CLOTH BOOKS are great. They touch on the basics of learning and encourage language skills. They relate directly to what the child is interested in. You can either make your own by embroidering the pictures and information you want your child to learn on each page, or you can pick up book panels at your fabric store or your favorite online store. With the store bought panels, simply follow the instructions on the panel and you’ll end up with a fabulous, well-loved book. Easy and so well loved by the little ones because every time they look at it they gain confidence in their own learning advancements.  Photos of an early learning cloth book is below.
[Editor's note: Designs By SiCK has two design sets for making children's books! Baby's Word Book here: http://www.designsbysick.com/details/babyswordbook and the recent Jacobean Sea Friends Book here:  http://www.designsbysick.com/details/seabook]

Toddlers soon want to learn how to FASTEN A BUTTON. What better way to do it than by making them their own button activity that they can easily practice on. Little fingers need a large button and easy fitting button hole to help them learn quickly. There are many imaginative ways to do this, such as making a good sized stuffed gingerbread child with a cute jacket. If you attach only a jacket front to the side seams of the gingerbread then there’s no way the jacket can get lost. However, you can opt to do it more simply. Just by using some brightly colored or juvenile patterned scraps and batting scraps left over from a quilting project you can design a button practice toy, such as a ‘magic’ bag, that has a ‘surprise’ inside so that the child enjoys playing with it and at the same time learning a new skill. You can put a new ‘surprise’ in the bag each time you decide to give your child practice buttoning and unbuttoning. The same idea can be used to for zipper, snap and Velcro practice and indeed, one project can incorporate all the different types of closures.

Another learning ‘toy’ you can make is one that teaches your little one to tie. Children around 5 years old can learn how to tie and it is a skill they should begin to learn at this age. Using two layers of Ultra Stiff stabilizer such as Peltex 70 you can cut a shape of a large shoe. Cut two pieces of fabric and sew or serge them onto the shoe form to make a ‘sole sandwich’ of all 3 pieces together.  Use the same method to cover two top flaps which will serve as the parts of the shoe where the lace goes. You can use the hole stitch on your machine to sew the circles that are the holes for the shoe lace. If you prefer, you could just use a punch to make the holes and then sew around them by hand and use some Fray Check to prevent unraveling. Attach the flaps to each side of the shoe. Insert the lace and teach your child how tie. Using your serger will speed up this project a lot. Kids will love learning how to tie on this ‘cute shoe’.

I have just touched the surface of the tons of ideas that moms and grannies can do to make excellent and inexpensive learning toys that your child/grandchild will love. Learning toys like these will be passed from child to child, as each child outgrows the particular learning skill and everything is washable for cleanliness. Let’s make fabulous Christmas gifts and let’s get our children learning and on the road to success!

Making a TINY TAGGIE BLANKET

You cut 2 squares the same size and you can make it any size you like.
It is nice to embroider a cute picture on each side of the material.

Place the right sides together.

Place a piece of quilt batting, the same size as the material, on one side. Insert loops of ribbon of different textures and colors and patterns so that the loops will end up on the outside of the tiny taggie blankie. You can also attach some cute items like bells or tiny rattles on to the ribbon loops, giving baby something interesting to grab. Other ideas of items that you can attach are a safety mirror, rattle, squeaker, and small, attached stuffie. Many suitable items can be found at your local Dollar Store. However, be sure to check the safety of anything you add to your toys. Now, sew around the edges of the Tiny Taggie Blankie, leaving an opening for turning right side out. Turn right side out and sew the opening closed.

[Editor's Note:  Please be sure anything you attach to the outside passes the "choke hazard test" - you can purchase a measuring device from many places.  Here are two:  http://perfectlysafe.stores.yahoo.net/choketester.html or  http://www.onestepahead.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=150788]