the little travelers * travel notes

The mouse and the match box

One day I needed a quick story for a group of young children, so I dumped out the matches from the box in the girls' room and used it for a quick home for little mouse.  The story was a winter story about a little mouse looking for a warm little house.  It was very off the top of my head but made the children warm inside.  I already had the little needle felted mouse from another story.

This box is usually in the girls' room filled with matches for story time.  I keep the matches up on a high shelf that can't be reached as I have one child who is easily swayed by impish notions that come her way.  They do however, light and snuff the candle themselves and have since around 4 years old.  The girls helped sew up the cover and chose the picture from a greeting card.  I scanned it and printed it on iron-on paper and simply ironed it onto the felt.   A very easy way to get a cute effect without having to resort to embroidery.

Felted soap

Start with a bar of soap. I cut mine in half for using with small children due to size. A big bar can get very cumbersome to hang onto. 

Use any type of wool roving.  I usually buy mine at Weirdolls.  
lay the soap onto as many colors as you like of layered wool.  For young children I then wrap the whole thing into cheesecloth (or pantyhose work well) to keep it all together.  Older children and adults do not need this.

I use only one bowl and usually do this with 8 children, ages 2 to 6.  Whenever possible I try to incorporate  activities that require cooperation.  The children are used to it and work very well together.  It's always a surprise when we're with other (outsiders!- haha!!) that all want their own bowls.  While living in Japan I was stunned to see entire classes working on one mural at the same time and nobody barking at the other to scoot over or don't draw on that part.  They were literally drawing through each other's arms, pens bumping into each other and not fighting- in jr. high!!

Dip into soapy water. Again, I do not measure just a good squirt of natural dish soap. Dr. Bronner's works great- love the lavender scented one. Work up a good lather and keep rubbing and dipping back into the bowl for minimum 5 minutes. For small children it will be considerably longer and may need some adult assistance to really get it to felt. Without the cheesecloth you'll be able to feel and see it come together. If you've got cheesecloth on it you'll have to peek and check it. The cheesecloth will felt to the wool as well if you overdue it so check it and then do the final rub a dub with the cloth off.

These soaps are great exfoliaters and work really well on getting stubborn paint, temporary tattoos or henna off of skin.

wool roving

Wool roving is a very versatile medium that gives great results with little effort. It can be dry needle felted or wet felted, which is lots of fun for children.

These hatching chicks are out in early spring. Easily made by needle felting together two balls of wool and gluing on a beak. Eyes could also be added, but I prefer the simplicity without. It leaves room for the imagination.

This is a great craft for little ones to participate in.  Just take a few tufts of wool in a few colors and twist up into a pipe cleaner.  Directions for this craft can be found in the spring  edition of Living Crafts magazine.  Hanging from a branch above a table or in the corner of a bedroom are beautiful places to display.  When you're ready for a change you can put the wool out for the birds and they will use it to build a nest.  We change our branches seasonally- bees in summer, leaves and acorns in fall, snowflakes in winter, blown eggs in early spring and butterflies is what we did this year. This picture is made by taking small pieces of roving and sticking it to a piece of felt background.   The heavier pieces can be attached by needle felting into place.

These balls are easy to make following the directions for the soap below. Instead of placing the soap in the wool, fill it with filler wool.  I like to put in a tiny bell as well for the littlest jingle sound when played with.