There are hours of fun for all the family when you put together a small collection of old buttons (obtained from charity shops,relatives,spares supplied with clothes,the sewing box).
They can be sorted by size,shape or colour (‘These ones are all my favourite colour pink’),put into a long line,counted poured back into the jar,threaded onto stiff thread (we’re using an old reel of christmas elastic) to make bracelets/necklaces,stuck onto card and even bashed with a spoon to see how far they bounce around the room,made into families (‘This one is the daddy,this is mummy,this is sister and that is the baby’),used as money in shopping games…
According to a pre-school expert I once had the pleasure of spending an evening with,the key is to constantly describe to the children what they are doing and afirm what they have done interspersed with some praise about how nicely they are playing (Eg. “You counted one,two,three,four,five. Well done,there are five buttons in that line,you counted them all!”)
30 minutes of nice,quiet,absorbed children for Mummy and so much fun for the little ones all for the princely sum of £0!
I can’t recommend having a button collection enough for 36+ month children but keep the jar out of sight and out of mind to just bring out under supervision every so often to ensure they don’t get bored with it and surprise them every so often by finding a new stash of different buttons from a new source.
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