I recently did a little DIY sewing project while still incorporating some teaching and learning moments for our kiddos as well. I used to play this game, it is called 'Batu Seremban' in our country (Malaysia in case you don't know) or five stones in English. This game is usually played by girls individually or in groups of two to five people. You can watch this tutorial on how to play the game. I remembered playing this game during my schooling years, so much fun!
I initially tried to sew using my sewing machine but it doesn't turned out nicely as the sizes I made is a bit too small and I feel really clumsy working on such a small piece with my sewing machine so I abandoned the idea and decided to hand sew the pieces myself.
So what we needed to make the batu seremban are:
- Cloth (any scrap cloths you have)
- Scissors
- Pen and ruler
- Needle and thread
- A small spoon
- Grains or beans (I used rice grains as I can't find any beans at that time)
Tutorial:
1. Using a pen and ruler, draw out 5 pieces of equivalent sizes (my measurement was 2.5 inches by 2 inches for each piece)
2. Cut out the respective pieces.
3. Take one piece, fold the piece into half (make sure the ncier looking surface is facing inwards) and start to sew along the edge leaving the last side for you to pour in the grains/beans.
4. With the thread still uncut, turn the piece inside out so that the nicer surface is facing outwards now.
5. Use the small spoon and start to scoop bits of grains/beans into the piece until about 70% full (I prefer a bit space in my pieces)
6. Sew off the remaining side to close up the piece and ensure no grains/beans are leaking or falling out.
7. Repeat the above steps for the remaining 4 pieces.
Teaching & Learning Moments:
1. I let our older 2 kiddos (6.5 years old boy and 4 years old girl) take turns to help me fill up the pieces with grains/beans. Get them to practise their concentration and motor skills.
2. I get to impart the knowledge of this traditional game in my country to our kiddos and let them have a feel of one of my childhood games.
3. At this early stage, I'm just teaching our older 2 kiddos to just throw 1 piece and try to catch it back with 1 hand. They get to practise their balancing, focusing and being able to juggle back the same piece that they bounced up in the air. It was quite fun to watch our kiddos trying to bounce off the piece from their palm.
4. I noticed that our 4 year old girl is still mostly throwing up the piece and not able to catch back the piece while our 6.5 year old boy tried to hard to bounce his piece. I had to get him to slow down and start with small height, to bounce by few centimetres from his palm and catching it back on the same hand and guiding him to increase the height as he gains confidence. Our 2 year old girl who didn't want to be left out tried to follow her older siblings as well but only managed to grab on tightly to her piece, hahaha, need more practise for her to learn to release her grasp of her piece.
And oh boy... my fingers are really rusty, can't juggle and throw and catch as good as when I was a kiddo playing these last time! Need loads of practice!!! But at the same time, I'm happy I get to impart this fun game to our kiddos as well :D
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