Thing With String

My daughter found a spool of twine in my craft box and asked if she could make a thing with string.  “Sure!” I said, “What kind of string-thing should we make…?”  My mind was already racing ahead, designing some kind of simple mobile or something.  Of course, Little Miss 3 already had her own idea.  “We’ll make a string person and we’ll need strong glue Mummy,” she said matter-of-factly.  I figured there was no point trying to change her mind, so changed mine instead.

I cut a piece of cardboard from a cereal box, and let her “draw” her person with cheap PVA glue.  (If your child isn’t ready for glue yet, you could get them to draw with a crayon first, and then you trace over it with glue.)  I cut some lengths of string to get her started, and helped her to place the string down on the lines of glue.  This was a little tricky, and a little messy, but a good fine motor skill activity.  She cut the lengths for the hair herself.  I decided string eyes were way too ambitious, so we just cut two circles out of the scraps of the cereal box.

She was absolutely delighted with her creation (it looked better once the white glue dried clear).  As a teacher if I had to design a string person activity, it’s probably not what I would have come up with.  Maybe that’s a good thing though.  She’ll be told what she has to do with activities soon enough.  For now, letting her run completely with her own idea is wonderful.

Perhaps your child would like to make a thing with string.  I wonder what creative ideas they would come up with?