Saturday, October 23, 2010

Friendship bracelets

Blondie ususally gets bored when it comes to craft activities. They take her longer than her little sister (who gloats about being fast), and her attention wanders. She generally makes it through half of any project and then it just sits there and Cheesie will ask to finish it.

This past week in Brownies we started making friendship bracelets to teach the girls the square knot for the Art to Wear badge. I started with regular white string because its nice and thick, but when we switched to embroidery floss it was too small for some of them to enjoy. Blondie was shown the directions just like the other girls, and then I walked away from her to help someone else and didn't stop to think about how she would possibly make this knot. Next time I looked up she was pulling up her second or third knot with both (yay) hands and having fun. It took her the whole meeting, but she finished it.

We showed miss Tonya (and shot the video) when she came for OT yesterday. Blondie is working on a chart to try to earn 50 checks for using her left arm during the school day, so we're incorporating the bracelets into the check system too. When Blondie gets 50 checks they are going out to eat (or something). After therapy Blondie and Cheesie wanted me to take them to the craft store to find some thicker string to make colorful bracelets. We found some cording and decided to try that, and it has worked beautifully. Blondie finished a pink and purple one while she watched tv last night and then started a pink and green one this morning. She is working much faster than the video now, and is so happy to find a craft to make for other people. So check your christmas presents, you might end up with something handmade from Blondie.