Learning to Tie with No-Sew Fleece Blanket

This is not a product review, but merely an eye-opening discovery that a simple kit complete with two strips of fabric can provide hours of learning and mother-daughter bonding.

One of my sisters gave each of my girls a No-Sew Fleece Blanket Kit.  As I began to help the girls make their blankets, I discovered what a wonderful lesson this crafting kit allowed.  My youngest has yet to learn how to tie her shoes.  This No-Sew Fleece Blanket kit got her excited about tying.  OK, she was tying knots and not bunny-eared shoe lace bows.  But, it's all part of the process.

Even though the moment my oldest daughter decided she wanted to make her blanket did not seem like the ideal moment to a mama with a horrible sinus headache at the time, we went to work.  

During the course of it all, I realized that this was more than just a headache-pounding mama and bouncing-off-the-walls-with-excitement daughter moment.  It was a teaching moment in knot tying!

Knot tying is one step in learning to tie shoes.  It's also a great skill to know for other crafting projects as well as even life-saving know-how if the situation arises.

Honestly, vacuuming the floor to prepare for the knot-tying fun was almost the hardest part.  Though, cutting the fringe pieces for tying comes in second and possibly surpasses the vacuum effort.

My oldest, oddly enough, just needed help with the cutting.  She then took over tying away.

Then, we got started with my youngest, who just turned 6.  I did the cutting even though she enthusiastically was willing to give that step a try.  After I had cut a few strips, I showed her how to make an "X" with the top and bottom fleece strips and then how to tuck one strip inside the newly created hole and then do it again to form the knot.

I even showed her how to tie an actual bow just so she got the idea of how her shoes should look one day when she gets the complete hang of this.