Berry Basket Weaving

Sweet Pea is 5 years old.  

From: I loved this beautiful strawberry basket weaving with yarn at Paint Cut Paste, and decided to try let Sweet Pea try an easier version with ribbon.

Material:

• Berry basket.
• Ribbon.
• Scissors.

Procedure:

• Wrap a piece of ribbon around the basket 2 times to calculate the how much length will be needed for weaving.   I found that 2 times around was just a little bit more than needed, but was  the easiest length for Sweet Pea to work with.

• Cut the ribbon.
• Invite your tot to tie a knot around one corner at the top of the basket (or do it yourself). Leave just enough ribbon to tie a bow.

• Demonstrate weaving the ribbon through the the top row of plastic holes and then let your tot try. 

•  When the entire top row has been woven with ribbon, let your child tie a bow in the corner (or do it yourself for younger tots).

• If desired, trim the ends of the bow to an attractive length.
• Let your tot repeat with remaining ribbon until the entire basket is covered, working her way down the basket. 

• Enjoy your tot’s fine creation.

Observations: Sweet Pea really loved this.  It was exactly the right level of difficulty for her.  She has been obsessed with tying bows lately,  so this seemed to be an especially good project for her.

We both loved this activity and the basket turned out so cute.  Sweet Pea was very excited with the look of the finished basket and insisted on giving it to her daddy as a gift.  

This would make a fantastic gift for a Mother or Father’s Day or for a grandparent.  (And would be even better if it was filled with a favorite candy!)  I would highly recommend this activity for tots with good fine motor control or children kindergarten and up.

Notes from the Trenches:   If the ribbon is wide enough to entirely fill one row of the plastic slats, it will probably look best.  If the ribbon is too thin, your tot may be able to weave more than one strand through each row of plastic.  I thought the double ribbon looked best, but it was difficult for Sweet Pea and after doing it that way for the first row, she only wanted to use 1 strand.

Rating: 4 Stars * (Fun, Easy, Independent – if your tot can tie a bow, Frugal)