How To Make a Doll - A Manual by Rebecca

When Rebecca came over to hang out today she showed up with her normal bookbag...and this:

"What is that?" I asked curiously.
"It's a doll I made," she answered, "My friend Nicole makes dolls and she showed me how."

Rebecca gave me a quick review of how she'd completed such a fantastic project, and demonstrated a couple of emotions her doll could express:

shock

excitement shown by applause

I was blown away.  She's seven...and wildly talented.

"This kid," I thought, then I said, "You know what...we should make a how-to manual for kids your age (and adults...who was I kidding) to learn how to make their own dolls."  She agreed, and we got started.

We folded a sheet of paper in half and I wrote down the title

Rebecca wrote down the materials needed to make the doll

We corrected any misspelled words

Then she dictated the instructions to me

and added a couple of helpful suggestions

Then it was time to publish.  While she worked on choosing a color she wanted to use for the cover of the manual:

I grabbed the computer and asked her to choose a font for the manual text:

She chose Arial Black

Next I typed out the text for the manual:

Then she pasted the text where she wanted it:

She used this new collage paper I bought the other day (it works like stickers)

made a plan

and added some lovely decoration

She finished the cover of the manual... (take a moment and swoon over the needle and thread with me)


Then we both sat back and marveled at her work:

"Have you named your doll yet?" I asked.  "Uh huh!" she started, "Do you know the movie The Sound of Music?"  I nodded.  "Well," she continued, "the doll is named after one of the characters.  The older one.  In Italian her name is Liza, but in English it's Lizel."

I wrote it down so I could remember for this blog post, and before I could get the materials out for her spelling test, she'd morphed the note...

into a plane

with a passenger

This kid.

"Do you know how to sew?" Rebecca asked me.  I hung my head and murmured, "Surprsingly...no."

"No?!" she gasped.  "I know, it's absurd," I continued, "I just never paid attention when I had the chance to learn."

"Don't worry!" she beamed, "I'll teach you!"  We noted that on our agenda for next week:

And moved on to the next hour of our lesson...