Abby joined me in the living room while I was watching A Place of Our Own, a TV show on PBS. (I love PBS.) Anyway, this episode was about family units, and how children can learn about various family traditions/practices/beliefs by becoming more immersed in family knowledge. How? Well, one of the examples showed a family that had hand made their own cloth family tree.
Cloth family tree? What's that?
Well, they had taken the basic concept of a family tree and converted it to fabric. Rather than a giant poster board listing their genealogy, they had made a fabric tree which could be spread out on their toddler's lap.
Abby was instantly enchanted. So was I for that matter.
It was gorgeous. Okay, it wasn't as pretty as a intricate quilt, but it was well done and an amazing idea. Especially for the benefit of their toddler. She could touch and feel the different textures, enjoy the different photos (yellowed with age, black and white, colored, cracked or brand new), and revel in the stories about each photo told to her by her grandmother. I was pretty sure Abby would like having a cloth family tree. And you know what? She suggested we make one. I asked her how we could do it, and Abby had lots of ideas. I love it when she takes the time to think things through.
We headed to a craft store over the weekend, collected some fabric remnants for 2 to 4 bucks a bundle, added some trim and ribbon on sale, checked out the scrap booking aisle (hey, I get distracted too!), and bought one sprig of fake flowers on sale. Total price = $11. I admit, I didn't let Abby have any say in the materials available. One reason is for my pocket book's sake; the other reason is for my sanity's sake. But once home, I gave her two to three options per subject choice. For example, I let her pick the tree material, the grass color, and the flower arrangement. So, it is a team project.
On Sunday I dug out our jumbled photo collection. Abby wanted to hear a story for every photo she picked up. Oay! She helped me pick out photos of family and return friends back to the box. A lot are ready to be scanned and copied, but I've got a lot more to find. The tree isn't that big, so I'm trying to narrow the photo selection down to multiple family members in one shot to help save space. We'll see how it turns out.
Abby, of course, wants it done now and doesn't understand why it should take so long. Toddlers!
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