With a printer and a sewing machine, life can be so much fun
I get to teach the Nursery lesson tomorrow called “I am Thankful for Fish.” This graphic from the “Primary Partners” book (which was provided by my ward) suggested using double-stick tape to attach a sandwich bag over the fishbowl, to put the fish in. Instead, I traced around the front edge of the bowl and then about 1/2″ outside of the outer edge of the bowl on a sheet protector, stacked five sheet protectors and used a rotary cutter to cut out 10 of the fish-bowl shapes at once, and then stitched each clear plastic fishbowl to the paper one (which I’d printed on cardstock.) Fortunately we have a smallish Nursery, so this didn’t take too long, and anyway I was having fun. (I so love the knee-lift and needle-down features on my Bernina — they’re excellent when I have a lot of pivoting to do.) I gave an extra one to Rose — pictured above at about 25% of actual size. She had fun coloring her fish, (and Mabel had fun helping her,) although it bothers her that once they’re in the bowl, the fish tend to turn upside down and cover each other — but I don’t think that’s going to bother the under-3 set.
I started fantasizing that if I made this out of fabric and clear vinyl instead, I could make a quiet-book page — and I could give the kids a new page every time I teach them. But, considering everything else that’s on my plate right now, I think that’ll have to happen in another lifetime, or at least a different life stage, (if I ever get a slower-paced one.)
March 15, 2008 at 8:44 pm
You are so creative! It is amazing what you can do with that sewing machine. You are very incredible. Those kids are lucky to have you teaching. I also enjoyed reading about your stitches below, but I can’t follow, as I am in sewing 101—the only stitch I know is straight. Who knew they all had names like little people. Anyway, in my next life, I am going to delve into sewing on a deeper level!
March 16, 2008 at 6:42 am
I’m teaching the same lesson today. This is one of the best lesson titles I’ve ever seen.
March 16, 2008 at 7:02 am
So are you doing a fishing pole? I had Dean build me a quick makeshift pole with a magnet on a string on a stick, and I printed and cut out some pictures of tropical fish and taped paper clips to the backs of the fish. We tried it out and it works great.
This morning Henry is coughing and wheezing.
I just gave him some Mucinex, but we’ll have to keep him home from church since he’s probably contagious. I’m so bummed that he’ll have to miss my cool fish lesson; I guess I can repeat it with him at home this afternoon. I hope Dean can take Henry home so I don’t have to get a substitute; he’s at a morning meeting so I haven’t had a chance to ask him about that yet.
Yesterday I found some mold on Henry’s room’s window track and sill — maybe from the humidifier we’ve been using — and I didn’t clean it up yet, since I wanted to research how to do so safely. Now I’m worried the mold is related to his cough, so I’m up early researching how to clean up the mold, and now wondering whether it’s worth a Sunday trip to Home Depot or Lowe’s (if they’re open Sundays?) to get an N95 mask I can wear while I wipe the mold away with some bleach water.
(Good grief.) (Also, Rose keeps yelling at me since she thinks she should get a turn on the computer, and I won’t let her since we have a rule abt. no TV or computer on Sundays. She doesn’t see why I should be an exception.)
Have fun with your lesson — I agree it’s about the best lesson title of all time.
March 16, 2008 at 1:36 pm
Well, Henry was fine and dandy by the time it was time for church, happily. (We still need to clean off that mold, though.) The kids in Nursery liked their fishbowls fine, but it was the other Nursery leaders who really went gaga over them. Very gaga. It was fun.