My oldest daughter is eight years old. One of her favorite hobbies is making paper dolls. She has been doing it for a couple of years now, and as she has grown, she has gotten more and more skilled at it.
Now there are several “levels” to the involvement that I can have with this particular activity. It can range from her showing me her work that she has completed already, to watching her design and cut out and make a single outfit, to creating an entire line of clothes for a season with her. (This last one is the one my own daughter enjoys the most, but it is VERY time consuming.)
Like I’ve said in my introductory blog about bonding with your girls, it’s very important to talk with her as you do an activity together. You can talk about the activity, or about other things, it doesn’t really matter. During this particular activity, I like to embellish my natural lack of fashion sense, to let her “correct” my poor paper fashion decisions. I will dress a boy in girl’s clothes, put clothes for an adult onto a child, mix lined pants with a checkered shirt, or put white clothes on a doll after Labor Day. It’s fun to let her “teach” me the right way to dress them, but I also enjoy seeing her use her creativity in designing her own outfits.
As she has gotten older, she has grown in both her skill and the scope of her ideas. When she first started, she would design a single outfit for one doll. Now she will make duplicate outfits to fit different paper family members (they’re cute when they all match), or make many outfits for one doll that incorporate a theme such as a coordinating color, printed pattern, or “cut” of fabric.
This can be kind of fun, but the real fun comes from doing it with her. She really enjoys doing this on her own, but she thinks it’s even better when I do it with her. She and I both agree that this is time well spent together. What special activities do you enjoy with your daughter?