Let mother or older brother draw on cardboard a simple strong outline. Provide a strong steel pin (hat-pin or mourning-pin will do) and a piece of folded cloth for a cushion. Follow the outline by pricking in it a succession of holes. The rough side is the right side of the decorated card. The card may be hung up as a transparency, or may be made up into blotter or calendar; or, if the outline be that of a vegetable or a fruit, it will make up into a Thanksgiving place card.
Very beautiful effects are produced by pricking the surface as well as the outline, a form of embossing, but this is a great strain on the nerves. Let the child work for only a few moments at a time, and be sure that the light is good and the drawing is distinct.
Sewing (Cardboard, worsted, silk or chenille, needle, punch)
It is a disputed question now whether or not the cardboard sewing of the kindergarten, once considered so essential, should be used at all. Some condemn it entirely; others use it sparingly. Many replace it with sewing on cloth and other materials soft and flexible, which lend themselves to the kind of stitching required later in everyday sewing. We cannot now enter into the discussion, but common-sense rules here as elsewhere.
Cards with designs already drawn and perforated may be bought, but the mother need not feel that she must depend upon these. Old visiting and invitation cards may be used for the purpose. We give a few examples of objects pretty and useful which may be made of this material. These will suggest others to the active-minded child. Get punch at kindergarten supply store; from 50 cents up.
1. Gift Card. Cut a square of cardboard 5 × 5 inches. With a needleful of red worsted let the child sew upon this card three straight candles in stitches one inch long. You may first punch in the bottom of the card three holes as guides. Put them in a row equidistant from each other. Make parallel to these a row of three dots in pencil. The child will push the needle through one hole from below and put it through the dot above, making his own hole. So proceed till finished. A flame may be drawn with yellow chalk at the upper end of each candle, to make it more realistic. This card may be used to stand a candlestick upon, or to send as a birthday card.
A similar card with the red stitches lying horizontally will picture firecrackers ready to be set off. Use as a mat for a match safe.
2. Cover for Medicine Glass. Draw a circle five inches in diameter. Cut this out. Parallel to the edge draw a circle four inches in diameter. Make dots about ½ inch apart along this second circle. Punch holes through these dots. With worsted, ravelings or chenille let the child sew once around this circle. Then go around the other way to fill up all the gaps left the first time. Use as cover for glass of medicine. Line the bottom with clean, white paper.
Vary by overcasting, or from a central hole take long radiating stitches to the holes in the circumference like the spokes of a wheel.
3. Toy Umbrella. The above circle with spokes may be made into a toy umbrella if a slender stick be run through for a handle. Stick a pin about an inch from the top to keep the umbrella part from slipping down.