Learning Life Skills: Corduroy
Over the course of the past two years, I have been trying to find fun ways to teach my preschool-aged little boy some age-appropriate life skills. Some things are “academic” (letters, numbers, etc.), and some are more hands-on.
Since little man loves to read (or be read to, since he hasn’t learned to read yet), we have had a lot of fun learning all sorts of things through great books. Most recently, we have been going through Don Freeman’s classic Corduroy.
There are so many practical life lessons in this sweet story, and we talked about escalators, friendship, what makes a home, and many other things. We chose to focus on two main hands-on life skills this week: saving money and sewing buttons.
Supply List
- Corduroy
- Coin Wrappers (also available at Dollar Tree and some banks)
- Buttons
- Cross-Stitch Supplies (hoop, fabric, thread, needles)
Saving Money
Although this story doesn’t mention any type of currency in detail (no counting change, no price tag, etc.), the premise of Lisa getting to take Corduroy home is that she had saved enough money of her own to go back and buy the bear herself.
Side note: I also used this situation to talk to my little man about problem-solving. When Lisa first saw and wanted Corduroy, her mother said no because she had already spent too much money that day. Lisa didn’t argue or protest, nor did she show any disrespect. Since money was the issue, Lisa went home and solved the problem by counting her own savings and choosing to use that money instead of depending on her mom to buy Corduroy for her.
My little man has two small piggy banks in his room filled with coins he finds/earns. He had no idea how much was in the piggy banks (neither did I) and no concept of what intentionally saving money is. We started by emptying the piggy banks and sorting coins (he is learning the difference between pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters). We then counted the different coins into piles of 10 and then grouped the piles as needed to fill a coin wrapper.
Little man really enjoys sorting the coins and then helping to drop them into the coin wrappers. It’s a very tangible way for him to start learning about saving even though he is young enough that he doesn’t really have a gauge for how much money is worth or what it costs to buy things. (We are working on that too–there is a Dollar Tree in town, and he knows that if he wants to go buy a toy there, he has to take $1 out of his piggy bank to go shopping!)
After sorting, counting, and rolling the coins, I took little man up to a bank near our house where I have a savings account, and we opened his own savings account. He was able to sit at the desk and answer several questions about himself, and then the bank manager took us back out to the lobby to empty little man’s coins into the big coin sorting machine. He was fascinated by how that worked!
On the drive home, little man couldn’t wait to tell his dad about his new savings account. He is confident that his money will be safe at the bank, locked inside that big coin machine! He doesn’t quite grasp how a savings account works in terms of logistics, but he does know he has a safe place to put his piggy bank savings as he accumulates it.
Sewing Buttons
My little man really enjoys hands-on learning and fine motor skill activities, so I decided to let him try sewing with a real needle. I was a little apprehensive and watched him closely, but he did a fantastic job. It’s fun to watch him tackle a new task with focus and determination, and it’s rewarding for him to learn something so tangible that he can hold and see and show off to others!
For the button sewing activity, I had purchased a small container of assorted buttons at the Dollar Tree in town. I gathered the remaining supplies from scraps and leftover materials I had from other projects (embroidery hoop, cross-stitch fabric, thread, and a needle). Amazon also has a ton of options like these Buttons and these Cross-Stitch Supplies (hoop, fabric, thread, needles) if you want to have them delivered to your doorstep.
(Please use your best judgement with your kiddo when deciding whether or not to let them use a real needle. I have seen other kid projects using plastic needles designed for kids, so that might be a better option if you’re not ready to start them with such a sharp, pointy one.)
I secured the cross-stitch fabric in the embroidery hoop so that little man would have a taut, solid surface to work with. We used a dark button and bright red thread for contrast. For simplicity, we worked with a two-hole button and stitched up through one hole and down through the other hole.
Little man repeated this process about ten times, then had to stop because he was running out of thread. I helped him tie it off, and he was done. He was very proud of his work and wants to sew more buttons onto the same fabric.
The Takeaway
By partnering these life skills with Corduroy, my little man understood and retained the story more fully because he was practicing the same concepts with his own hands in his own home that were taking place in the book. He also gained a focus interest in learning to save money and sew buttons because of his interest in the story. Win-win!
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