South Haven Press is a micro business that changes focus as I get new ideas. I started out with Clothespin People and Writing Resources, and then started making face masks when Covid came around. Thankfully, the masks are no longer needed. Only a very small group of people were interested in making the Clothespin People, so I decided to shift away from that focus. Instead of providing craft kits that need to be put together, I am now offering a fully fucntioning tool for creative play and story telling.
Felt & Flannel is ideally suited for preschool and primary aged children (providing they don’t put things in their mouths). The sets are a bit like paper dolls, in that you can change the clothes on each person so that they can play different roles in the story. Because they are made of felt and flannel, there are not paper tabs that need to be folded back. The clothes just stick with friction!
My primary goal with the Felt & Flannel is to provide a tool for teaching Bible stories, so I have organized the sets by Bible story. The pieces are somewhat generic so that they can be used as multiple different things (a table can also be a bed, an alter is a well if you add water).
The one thing that I did not include in the sets is instructions on how to tell the story. I feel that it is very inportant to actually tell the story and not read it from a book when using the story boards in order to keep the children’s attention. However, many moms who are new to the faith asked me for some basic ideas on how to teach the stories. I would love to support parents who are seeking to share their faith with their children, so my goal for this spring is to create cards for major Bible stories with the main point of each story and suggested placement of figures. I hope to have some of these available by the OCHEC Convention this spring.