When Anya started school last year, she immediately loved every minute of it much to mine and Richards joy.  That is everything except PE days.  PE days were a nightmare simply because she hated her PE kit and still does.  She is such a girly girl who only wears dresses and skirts so the idea of wearing a tracksuit is awful for her.  Of course I can’t change her uniform but I also know that I can’t go through another year of tantrums and tears twice a week.  So recently I came up with an idea which I hoped would work.  I bought some pretty satin ribbon in her school colour and told her she could wear ribbon in her hair on PE days.  She is delighted and it’s been working really well.  It’s such a simple thing but the ribbon makes her feel girly and I guess also takes the focus away from the tracksuit.  We’ve been trying out a few styles with this (life-saving!) ribbon and Anya’s favourite has become these ribbon plaits which my mum used to do for me as a kid.  So I thought I would share how we do these:

Start by making two ponytails.  I prefer lower ponytails as they fall better once made in to plaits.

Cut a piece of ribbon and slide it in to the hair tie making sure to adjust the ribbon so that both sides are of equal length.   The length of the ribbon should be more than double the length of the ponytail.  This is so that you have enough ribbon left over to make a bow later.

Separate the ponytail in to three sections as you would do when you plait hair.  The left strand of ribbon should be held with the left section of hair and the right strand of ribbon with the right section of hair.  The middle section of hair has no ribbon.

Then plait hair as normal making sure that the ribbon is plaited in too.  Try and keep the both the strands of ribbon on top of the sections of hair – like in the picture above.

Using a hair tie, tie the plait making sure the ribbon is tied in too.

Do the same with the other ponytail and then tie the leftover ribbon in to bows. And you’ve got pretty ribbon plaits.

This is the easiest and fastest way I could think of doing it as time is always running out in the mornings before school so I wanted something that doesn’t take longer than making regular plaits.  Anya adores her ribbon plaits and now demands it everyday, not just PE days!