7 Reasons Sewing Is Great For Kids!
1. Sewing helps improve fine motor skills
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Teaching children how to sew can help develop their fine motor skills. The sewing process involves small movements using the hands, such as threading a needle, knotting the thread, cutting a pattern or fabric, tracing a pattern, or creating stitches. These movements contribute to the improvement of hand-eye coordination at an early age.
Children will learn how to use their fingers properly as some of these sewing movements require gentle and precise actions. Threading a needle requires the utmost concentration to get the thread’s tiny end to slip through the needle’s eye. Cutting patterns need precision in using a pair of scissors. Tracing a pattern on the cloth needs writing in straight and curved lines. These are just examples of your child’s activities as they go through their sewing journey.
An older child who is quite adept in sewing by hand already can shift to using a sewing machine. Running a sewing machine can also help develop hand-eye coordination as a child needs to learn how to move the fabric as it passes through the needle.
2. Sewing contributes to the development of cognitive skills
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Learning arts and crafts such as sewing at an early age helps in the development of cognitive skills. Sewing is a life skill where both hemispheres of the brain at work at the same time.
The process of learning sewing involves not only artistic skills but also mathematical skills.
Measuring the fabric’s size to use, the length of thread needed, or the sizes and shapes that need to be cut are examples of learning the basic mathematic skills through sewing.
With sewing lessons, you can also bring out your child’s artistic side by learning different colors, shapes, and textures of different fabrics and sewing materials. Your child is introduced to a whole new world of colorful gadgets and gizmos, proving useful today and many years ahead.
By learning how to sew, a child’s intuition, mathematical, artistic, and analytical reasoning abilities are honed with the various activities involved in needlework.
3. Sewing helps kids learn patience
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Patience is something that children have less of these days. Everything appears to be done too fast. Sewing is one of those skills which has no shortcuts. Therefore, by learning how to sew, children will learn how to be patient.
Sewing is done using step-by-step procedures, from threading your needle, tracing your pattern, cutting your fabric then stitching. You cannot move forward to the next step unless the previous one is over and done. Children will understand that some things have to wait and will understand patience in this manner. Sewing can teach the value of patience subtly yet very effectively.
Sewing also involves the repetition of tasks. The key to finishing a sewing project is practice and many repetitions of tasks. Your child will learn that practice and patience are the answer to reaching a goal- both applicable in a sewing project and in everyday life.
4. Sewing helps build confidence and self esteem
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Children like to seek praise and recognition, so learning a new skill such as sewing and eventually getting better at it is a big boost on self-confidence. For a young child, every little step that is accomplished is already a big thing. Even threading a needle for a child who’s a newbie at sewing is a happy triumph. Completing a sewing project is even a more remarkable feat that a child can cherish. Learning and mastering a skill like sewing can build confidence in children, knowing that they can be capable of doing and finishing something on their own.
5. Sewing inspires creativity
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Children usually have minds that explore more than adults and have brilliant imaginations. Introducing them to sewing can give them an enjoyable and exciting medium to show their creativity. Presenting to them skills like sewing gives them areas to express their imaginations and creative minds.
When your child has ideas about sewing, which are unique and different from what you are familiar with, let them be. You might be surprised by your child’s extraordinary ideas and apply them to a sewing project. Exposing your child to skills like sewing allows them to harness whatever talent they may have, and you will never know unless you let them try. Who knows, your child might have the makings of a great fashion designer.
6. Sewing helps with communication
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Children who learn how to sew are also trained to be good communicators. Teaching children how to sew involves giving them instructions on how to go about the sewing process.
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Being new to a skill such as sewing, children cannot do it on their own. You need to explain to them how everything should be done step-by-step until they become confident with their movements. Children also have the tendency to do things their way. With sewing, they will discover that they need to listen and follow instructions to do it right.
Learning how to follow instructions during sewing lessons enables children to remember how to do things in an orderly manner, think about the consequences of their actions, learn from mistakes, and the value of proper communication.
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Learning how to sew also allows children to meet other people of varied ages, making them more confident in communicating with people of different age levels. It also enables them to meet new friends who are of the same interests as they are.
7. Sewing teaches a lifeskill that can be used daily
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Teaching your child the basic stitches can help them fix a hem, patch a hole, and mend a seam. They will carry this skill until they are adults and will be such a valuable skill that they can use daily. Emergencies such as a missing button or ripped hem will be such a breeze. Your child might even decide to pursue a career in fashion, become a dressmaker, an embroiderer, or an entrepreneur with a business related to needlecrafts.
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Your child may even use their learned skill in sewing to help other people by sewing toys, clothes, and other essential stuff. They may also use their talent to make personalized projects as gifts for friends and family.
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You may have gained or a lot from learning to sew since your home economics class in your younger years, and you only realize the paybacks now that you are an adult. Sewing is one of the skills that will never go extinct and will always be a valuable skill that you can pass on to your children.
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Learning to sew can contribute greatly to the emotional and mental well-being of a child. No doubt teaching your children how to sew can certainly reap numerous benefits. Sewing is a skill that has been around for ages and probably will still be here for children and adults to enjoy for many more years to come.
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