Our Mini-Gift Wrap Station

I don't really have the planning skills to do holiday-themed play around here.  But this one was easy!

I took my cue from Ladybug Girl.  Last year she started showing an interest in helping with Christmas preparations a lot more, especially wrapping presents.  

I was too much into last-minute panic at that time to really pay attention.  Leisurely weekends of beautiful gift-wrapping are far from my reality for now.

So I did what any corporate mom would do - delegate the wrapping to yaya, and focused on teaching her to wrap presents for her classmates.

Here's a gentle introduction I left behind on her playroom shelf:

aluminum foil cut to size, some shapes from her geometric solids set, and labels; inspired by this post from Living Montessori Now

These labels to go with the geometric solids set.  I printed from Montessori Printshop and laminated them ages ago.
My first and last print-laminate project.  I had to put them to good use!

When I got home that night, I could tell she got the idea right away:

Moving on to harder work - she needed to make the corners crisp for the shape to show.

Great geometric solid review too!

When this was done, we moved on to real gift wrapping this time.  I came home from work and we wrapped some Shopkins to give away as gifts:

Just used origami paper and art materials!

Taught her how to fold and tape the edges

We did a couple of gifts each and called it a night.

I updated the gift wrap station with the Shopkins project we did the night before.  And would come home to see a few done now and then:

Till we had a nice little stash going

I took the lazy way out to finish her classmate presents : bought ready-made gift bags.  

I let her take complete charge

... till every name was crossed out.

All done.  What a great feeling!

After a rather late entry into the Christmas gifting spirit...

(Completely uninterested at Christmas morning two years ago)

... she's now initiated into the spirit of giving!

(And a lefty writer's mark to prove it!)

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