The Humble Button

Yesterday I found a button out by my letterbox, tangled in a wee bird’s nest that had blown down from a mighty magnolia tree in my neighbour’s garden.

It reminded me of two things. One my great love of snooping through my grandmother’s button collection when I was young and each button I picked out would have a story to be shared. It would tell me a tale of where it came from and how it came to live in her button box. Secondly, of a time when I used to read with a group of boys in foster care. One of them told me “I was just like a button” and when I asked "if it’s because of my roundish shape?" he laughed and replied “Nah, its cos you hold things together.”

These memories got me thinking about the humble button or more importantly how it created a magical connection between a grandmother and her granddaughter. It ensured some important family memories were passed in to the future.

Could a button collection or any type of collection somewhere in a programme, create a curiosity and opportunity to have this important sharing and connecting happening between children and adults in your programme? I think it could and I would love to hear all about your experiences and wonderful collections, anytime.

Following this, I asked my two youngest children for ideas about how could buttons be used in a programme and here are some of their ideas: Button bracelets, puppet eyes, board game counters, paper flower centres, fishing rod floaters, robot controls, shaking snakes, castanets, shakers for maracas, brooches and hair ties, a button award for staff, managers or children for when they hold things together.

That was less than a minute brainstorming with 2 children, so if you multiplied that by the number of children in your programme today and the number of staff, give them a few minutes to brainstorm, there instantly is a great art and craft resource using a recycled and potentially cost free resource.

Finally by pushing a few buttons on a computer in less than 10 seconds whilst on the internet – and voila – open door to 14,400,000 possibilities for arts and crafts ideas using buttons.

Enjoy - Julie.