I gave my grand daughters a piece of lined paper and had them practice on that No thread in the machine. Then I gave them a bag of scraps that we pressed their choices and sewed on to a sheet of computer paper start ing at one edge and filling it with their choices Made a simple back and stuffed it and they each went home proudly. with a pillowThis took about 3 sessions. THe next step went on to 9 patch and some paper piecing and as their interest grew the blocks became more difficult.