Wendy House

The little group I teach at church has such a wide range of ages that sometimes there are problems after church when they are all playing freely in the hall while the grown ups have cups of tea. The big kids want to do kicking balls and throwing things and the little kids either run in the way and get hit, or steal the ball. Either way, something usually ends in tears...or mums getting fraught about who did what to whom and was it on purpose. (So glad mine is nearly 21!)

So, I thought it would be good to have something for the little ones to do that was more exciting than just playing with the toys in the small room. There is a table in there , so I thought if I covered it I could make it look like a Wendy House and the little ones hopefully will be so enamoured of it that they don't mess up the big kids games. (Cross fingers and a few prayers here! LOL)

One day when it was my turn to mind the kids during the crèche, I brought my measuring tape and got the big kids to help me measure the table. Then we talked about what it should look like on the outside and on the inside. So Amy and Gideon helped me design the Wendy House.

I was pleased to see this idea when visiting someone else's blog. It is a similar idea but specifically suited for boys. Sometimes it is nice to have confirmation that you are heading in the right direction. Ours won't have a pitched roof, as it has to be folded and put in the cupboard when we go home. (We meet in a community centre.)

Yesterday I got a chance to start cutting up a long length of calico which is just about right to make the cover. Here is the progress so far. This will be one side of the front opening. This is a flowering bush and a window box. It is just fused for now, but I will stitch into it to make it a bit more realistic. The "kitchen sink" will be on the other side. I am making it double layered. The window will be inserted between the layers... a piece of net curtain that I got from the charity shop today.

This is actually quite fun for a change. It doesn't have to pass some major rules for exhibiting or anything! Just make it up as I go along. I used to do scenery for kids plays that way in the past.