How to Make a 9 Year Old Girl Happy!

Sewing!

At Least This 9 Year Old!!!

             
This is not the best picture, but I had to share it  because Alexis absolutely loved making this scarecrow.  I am so proud of her efforts.  I think she did a great job!  This is the 1st time that I let her use the sewing machine mostly unsupervised.  If you can see the details, you can tell this is definitely a 1st for that.  (She actually has used a sewing machine before - our Keeper's girls made wall hanging quilts a few years ago, but it involved straight lines and much supervision.)  The scarecrow is the fruit of a 3 week unit study on Seamstress and Sewing Machines.  (See earlier post.)  Alexis learned all the necessary parts of the machine, and enjoyed her time running it.  We did not get to the hand stitching that I had hoped to work on with her.  Hopefully we will have some time for that during the Christmas holiday.

The Good:  The Best of Sewing Machine Fun for Kids was a wonderful starting point.  I gave my pre-trying out opinion in an earlier post, but I have to say it was a big hit with my sweet daughter.  I photocopied all the allowable sewing practice pages and she went to town using the machine with no thread.  The author has several fun learning activities included in the book as well.  It also includes a few small cute project for students to do.

In Their Own Words:  Betsy Ross - This was an easy reader.  That worked out well because it gave Alexis more time to sew.  An added bonus; since we visited Philadelphia over the summer, her memory was quite fresh of many of the locations mentioned in the book.  

The Bad:  Three weeks went by way too fast.  I felt terrible putting the sewing machine away.  However, we had to get ready for our Thanksgiving guests...

The Ugly:  Well, I would have to say it was reading about Isaac Singer.  I knew that he led a colorful life, but had no idea just how much so until we read a short biography.  Wow!  That is all I can say.  I don't think I'll ever quite look at sewing machines the same...

Anyway- again, it was a fun 3 weeks, and we are now moving onto The Jesse Tree and notebooking our state history!