A Pen & Pencil Holder – Making It together with a Little Child

Such a pen and pencil holder appeared quite by chance when we were busy with some developing activity based on modeling from plasticine (modeling clay) with our son

First, I attached a list of cardboard on the wall with the help of double-sided sticky tape. Arseny likes to work on the vertical surface more than sitting at the table.

Then I started making balls of different colours and sizes and Arseny (20 mo) enthusiastically ran from me to the wall – stuck and flattened the balls on the cardboard relying on his own sense of composition

When Arseny got tired, it occurred to me to cover the “picture” with food plastic and roll it out with a rolling pin. Arseny was also there and helped me do it Following the spirit of experimenting, I rolled the picture out until it became smooth but one of the ways was to stop earlier and then the picture would have had an interesting relief. Afterwards, we carefully took the plastic film away. As a result, we got a nice abstract picture of Arseny’s design .

Then my son and I continued developing fine motor skills . I was making small balls from food foil and Arseny pressed them into our plasticine picture. Soon, tired after the work, our little one withdrew to play with his car and I finished what we had started – pressed some more foil balls into the modeling clay. How beautiful the picture turned out to be!

One thing left was to decide how to use that beauty. Having rolled the picture in a pipe, I found out that it looked even better than in a flat state. What was left was to fix it with a sticky tape inside, to mask it with some more plasticine and to place a jar/glass of an appropriate form into it. The pen and pencil holder was ready!

I really like how it looks – a joyful and ingenuous child’s design! Now this pencil holder stands on my table and my heart rejoices at the thought that it is the first functional thing made (partly or even more ) by my son

Try making it with your little ones, too. I think even a one-year-old can participate in making such a thing.

Next time we will tell you about the second meeting of the children’s art-group in Anastasia’s house.

Natalie

Illustrations to the article

Photos by the author

To read this article in Russian, please, visit here