Button Snake

One thing I have learned from doing Mommy and Me School is that things don't always go quite the way I planned them. Which is understandable because sometimes I have very lofty ideas of just how an activity will play out. Sometimes it's disappointing, but I'm learning to just go with it and follow Sweet Girl's lead. For example, on my calendar for the month it says soap jars. I don't remember where I saw this idea, but basically you fill a jar of water and some soap, the child shakes it up and is amazed by the bubbles. Then you watch as the bubbles settle and start again. Sweet Girl did not care at all about the bubbles, or the food coloring or glitter that I added. All she wanted to do was take the lid off the jar. When she couldn't do it she just walked away. So, the activity flopped, but you never know until you try. Maybe we'll come back to it again.

On that same note, the button snake didn't go quite like I thought it would. This idea is all over Pinterest, so I decided to give it a try. To make the button snake I sewed a button onto the end of a piece of scrap ribbon I had. (To be completely accurate it was bias tape.)

Then I cut out various shapes from some scraps of felt. I thought it would be fun to talk about different shapes and colors. Plus when she's older we can talk about patterns. I cut a slit in each shape big enough for the button to pass through. Some people sew something on the end so the pieces won't just slide all the way off, but I liked leaving the end open so Sweet Girl could just pull the pieces off the other end.

Finally it was time to play. I showed Sweet Girl how to slide the button through the hole in the shapes and slide them down the snake. Sadly, she was not super interested. She ended up taking the shapes and running away with them.

If this happens to you, don't become discouraged. I left the button snake out for awhile to just see what Sweet Girl would do. She enjoyed carrying the shapes around. She draped the snake part around her neck (She's really into necklaces right now.) I think this is something I'll hold onto for awhile and bring out again in a month or two to see if she's interested in trying again.