Welcome to our little fun sewing cottage! We are practicing our fine motor skills like coloring on fabric, sewing, using batting and closing stitches.

Here is our sweet Montessori-inspired lesson that began with a Bible story. Will you join us and take a look at how beautiful their projects turned out?

Montessori at home Fine Motor Skills Practice

Like sewing, fine motor skills exercises foster and strengthen manual dexterity, manipulative skills and eye-hand coordination.

We have been practicing sewing with Brother since he was about 3.5 years old. We have practiced sewing on a button and the straight or running stitch so far and he is doing very well.

These are skills that require a lot of concentration, so it is a bit of a challenge when Sister is around and is asking questions and wants to watch him work up close.

She will be starting in a few months (she just turned 3 years old) and she is very excited about it.

Lesson: The Life of Joseph (Genesis 37-50)

Our sweet lesson started with our family Bible devotional time. We have been studying the life of Joseph in the book of Genesis.

This particular day, we read about Pharaoh’s dream about an upcoming drought over the land of Egypt and the surrounding countries.

Joseph interpreted his dreams and even though he had been wrongfully put in prison, Pharaoh made him the #2 ruler in Egypt.

Moral of the story: God has a plan and He can turn negative things in our lives into positives. I wanted to make a simple lacing activity to make a pillow that would remind my children of this Bible story.

But then I thought that it had been a few weeks since we had last practiced sewing. This would be the perfect opportunity to not just sew something, but create something fun!

To make a small pillow, you will need:

• fabric or fabric squares (each pillow is about 5x6in, so double that)
• fabric scissors
• fabric markers
• matching thread
• sewing hand needle
• pillow batting
• To make your life easier, you can get a beginners sewing kit for children.

How to decorate and sew a small pillow:

1. I cut a 5×10-inch rectangle out of your fabric. Just find fabric that you already have, buy a special design or you can even use an old t-shirt and cut it up.

2. Then I gave my children the fabric markers and let them decorate the outside of the fabric. The made circles and smiley faces, hearts, clouds and rainbows.

Drawing and coloring on fabric with markers called for focus, patience and accuracy. These were great skills to practice!

3. After we were done decorating the fabric, it was time to feed the thread through the eye of the hand needle. I helped with the knot on the thread.

4. I drew lines with a fabric marker on the inside of the fabric to help guide him and for I’m to sew in a straight line. Brother started sewing the fabric inside out, using the running or straight stitch. I sat there monitoring him, letting him do his thing. Once he got to the end of the first line, I taught him how to turn the fabric to start sewing the next straight line. He had never sewn like this to create something, so he was excited to try it.

5. Once he had about 3 inches from the end, we do a closing knot twice and cut the thread off. I helped Sister sew her small pillow this time.

6. Turn the fabric back (right side out) so the stitching is on the inside.

7. Both children started stuffing their small pillows with pillow batting. They asked me if that is what clouds felt like. Sweet children!

8. I helped Brother do his closing stitches to seal the small pillow closed. This is what they look like!

Didn’t these pillows turn out great?! They were satisfied at how nice they look and they also remembered the Bible story we had learned about. After they were ready, they headed to the play room to play with their dolls and newly-made pillows.

What do you think? Will you take a chance and try to start sewing with your little ones?

I would suggest start with the straight or running stitch. Then try sewing on a button. Finally, create something fun like these small pillows.

Enjoy and happy sewing!

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