A Weather Doll Can Solve Power Struggles Over Clothes
My (beautiful, strong-willed) kids like to decide forthemselves which clothes to wear. I’m okay with this most of the time, as long as they are seasonally appropriate.
The problem for us here in the South is that the season doesn’t always predict what is appropriate. We can get a 70 degree day in January, followed by a dip into the 30s twelve hours later.
It’s a nice problem to have, living somewhere that can get warm weather even in winter.
It does make it hard for the kids to pick the right clothes, though. Some days, when they were toddlers, they just had a case of the “I do its,” and insisted on wearing shorts when it was 38 degrees outside.I love a good power struggle in the morning.
Weather Doll #1
When my twins were about 3 I came up with a solution that we all really liked. I cut out a little felt “weather doll” that helped them feel independent. Every night I would dress the doll in shorts or pants and short sleeves or long sleeves.
Every morning, the girls would look at the doll to see what to wear. This method worked oh-so-much-better than me telling them verbally – it removed all our power struggles.
The doll itself was super-simple. I just cut it out of some felt scraps leftover from another project. I cut it freehand, so the arms are kind of wonky. And, as you can see, it has no hair.
Fortunately, my kids didn’t care.
Weather Doll #2
I decided my little doll needed a makeover.
It’s easy to change the outfits because felt (and some other fabrics) sticks to felt. It’s also easy to make, especially when you have a template. So I’ve made one to share with you.
Materials You’ll Need
- Freezer paper
- Pencil
- Iron and ironing board
- Felt in several colors, including a sliver of red for the mouth
- Sharp scissors
- Googly eyes
- Craft glue
- Printout of template (below)
Step-by-Step Instructions
1. Tear off a sheet of freezer paper the size of the template. It’s easier if you do the body and hair separately.
2. Lay the freezer paper on top of the template, shiny side down. You may want to tape it down in a spot or two to hold it in place.
3. Using a pencil, trace the template onto the freezer paper.
4. Lay the freezer paper shiny side down on top of the felt, and iron for a few seconds. You want it to be the minimum amount of time needed to get the freezer paper to stick to the felt.
5. Cut out the fused felt and freezer paper, as shown below (Sorry the felt changes from dark pink to light pink — I had to take the ironing pictures later, when my kids weren’t around):
6. Peel the freezer paper away from the felt. Save the peeled away paper — you will need it again.
7. Voila! You have a weather doll.
8. Repeat steps 1-6 for the hair. Glue on googly eyes, and make a mouth with a sliver of red felt. Or, you can use embroidery thread and sew them on like I did with my original doll. Make some little hair bows too, if you like.
9. Now, choose felt or scrap fabric for the doll’s clothing. If you’re using scrap fabric, check that it sticks well to the felt doll. (If it doesn’t, you could give it a felt backing with Wonder Under, but that’s a whole other tutorial….) Lay your freezer paper doll, shiny side down, on top of your fabric. Yes, use the one you peeled off in step 6. Iron it on, just like you did with the doll body.
10. Okay, pretend that that purple felt transformed itself into the floral fabric shown in this next photo. Please? I was rushing to finish before I had to pick up my kids from school, and I used the wrong fabric for this photo.
Here it is all ironed on:
I was really excited to figure out that you can iron the same sheet of freezer paper over and over, and it will still stick well enough for our purposes. So you only have to cut out a template once!
11. Leaving a little margin, neatly cut the fabric out around the doll template.
12. Peel the paper off (save it), trim out the neckline on the fabric, and you have a little shirt! Repeat for pants, and you have an outfit.
Once you have all the outfits you want, teach your kids how to “read” it to see what to wear. If they’re anything like my kids, they’ll love the feeling of independence you’re giving them.
Then, put it into your routine to look at the forecast and dress the doll for them every day. At first I did it when I checked on them before I went to bed.
Later on, my son, who is 3 years older than the twins, looked at the forecast with me and helped me do it. This had the double benefit of giving him something special to do with Mommy, and also teaching him about what temperatures go with each type of clothing.
I do have to add that sometimes even knowing the weather doesn’t help, but that’s a whole other blog post.
What a great idea! I love the idea of fostering independence, while still setting boundaries. Love it!
Thank you! It really did work well for us. They love everything we do that promotes autonomy – I need to remember that….
My daughter's would have loved this and it is a great idea – Thanks for linking up to Pin Worthy Wednesday, I have pinned your post to the Pin Worthy Wednesday Pinterest Board
This is BRILLIANT. We check the weather report every morning, but I think your kids have to be old enough to read graphs and understand temperature scales for that to work.
Great idea!! I might make something like this!
I cannot find the link to print the templet. Can someone help me?
I will take a look for you later this morning (I'm on mobile right now)
It is working fine here. If you hover your mouse over the top right corner of the graphic showing the template, you'll see an icon that looks like a box with an arrow pointing out of it. Click that. This will open the pdf in google drive. Then there will be a print icon at the top that you can click. Please let me know if you're still having trouble!
I couldn't see it at first, but after reloading the page, it worked well. Just mentioned in case someone else has the same issue. I plan to use this as a busy bag activity for my 2yo in my homeschool.
What a great idea! I never would have guessed something so simple would help avoid a power struggle!
For us it always has helped when we can make the kids feel like they have more control, so this worked really well for us.
Thanks for sharing Heather. 🙂 I love this idea. Will be trying this with my 4 year old. My 12 year old loves pants and button down long sleeve shirts. He dislikes wearing shorts. I wished I used this idea when he was younger. It's kind of late now. 🙂
I hope it works for you!