Dropped stitches can be birdies who fell out of the nest, and you can be the mommy bird picking them up. I know this sounds like drivel, but little ones love it. The rhyme and the suggestion for storytelling come from an article in Cast On . To help ensure success, start will a good quality worsted weight wool yarn, to make it easy. Use wooden needles, because they won't slip out as easily.
Children can make their own needles.
Buy some beads at a craft store, and some dowel that fits into the hole. Cut the dowels to length, sharpen in a pencil sharpener, and sand them to make them smooth and round off the points. Glue on the beads at the other end. We made some size 13 wooden needles, but they were really too big. The second set was size 10 and worked much better for a child.