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Skills & Projects

 Here we are, halfway through the course already!

I do hope that you will read through the lessons as they arrive, even if you don’t have a lot of time to devote to them at that moment.

If you aren’t planning to work on them just yet, that’s OK – your mind will start to roll some of the ideas around & your eye will might fall on “just the right thing” when you least expect it!

Q&A

What if my children are under 7?
They don’t have core subjects, so how do I fill in my block(topic) overview?

First, look at your Lists Sheet.

Pick one animal (or a group such as arctic animals for January or Rabbits for March) & add in a couple more of the themes (flowers, food, a colour) to come up with your focus for each month.

Put these on your block page instead of academic topics. You’ll quickly realize that there are so many things you can make & do with your children that relate to those themes.

*** My daughter is 7 & we’ve been using the same animals for 4 years now & we’re still not tired of them ! ***

Handwork Skills

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In Lesson 1’s Meet & Greet exercise, many of you stated that one of the main things you’d like to achieve by taking this course is to learn HOW & WHEN to introduce handwork skills to children.

Some of you also mentioned that you are nervous about your own skill levels in some of the fibre arts & do not think you know enough to teach your children.

Of course, it is best if you know how to do something before you bring it to your children, the trick is to know WHEN you know enough to do it effectively.

Lastly, most of you said that you want to learn HOW to come up with great ideas for interesting & fun projects.

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This lesson will give you these valuable tools

& much more !

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First –

I have created a set of 3 sheets for you to work with.

You can download & print them HERE before you start the lesson.

Make sure you print 2 copies of the first page.

The first will be for YOU & the second for your child.

If you have more than one child, you can decide whether you want to work with just one sheet for all or a separate sheet for each.

Next –

Watch Lesson 4.

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Now, you may be thinking how am I going to learn the skills that I need/want to learn?

Learning a new skill is partly about gathering information but the biggest part is just fiddling around with the tools & materials on your own.

I’ll give you my “BEST OF” book & site list in Lesson 5 which will give you an idea of where to start looking.

Another great way to learn a new handwork skill is to go to a good yarn shop or visit an artisan’s atelier. You are likely to be able to find beginner classes in both places (of course, I offer a few courses myself…!)

Handwork Projects

Since Lesson 4.1 is quite big, I’m only going to give you one exercise for this section.

It’s fun & you can spend as much time on it as you’d like.

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PROJECTS THEME SHEET

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Take your Projects Theme Sheet (it’s bundled in with the other 3 sheets for this lesson – you can download it above).

Start brainstorming GENERAL ideas for projects.

Keep in mind the blocks & themes you’re planning.

Look at your Handwork Ideas Board, see what your kids put on their Love Lists….

It doesn’t matter which skill stage you’ll be working on, what benefits the project will have or when you’ll teach it….

Just start jotting things down – if you think of places where you can combine – fabulous!

Write them in!

The first 5 columns are well-suited for children’s projects while YOU can choose to make a project from any column.

The contemplative/healing column can include projects that you choose to do that aren’t particularly challenging – just something that you enjoy & that won’t take too much “thinking”!

We’ll place projects in specific places, discuss how to introduce & teach the skills & other lesson related topics in Lesson 6.

The wonderful thing about fibre is that it can be intertwined with any other craft or activity.

Think of a sewing a gardening apron or embroidering small sachets to fill with lavender you’ve grown or making a bag to carry on a hike or embellishing jars of homemade jam with handprinted felt tags ….

This is HANDWORK, the possibilities are endless & there is always something new to learn.

You will never get bored of making things – I guarantee you.

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Here are a couple of interesting things for you.

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WATCH this WEBINAR that Craftsy (an online craft education company) broadcast a while ago.

It is hosted by  John Levisay, Craftsy co-founder and CEO who is joined by Dr. Victoria Schindler, professor of occupational therapy at Richard Stockton College of New Jersey and co-author of “The Neurological Basis of Occupation” and neuropsychologist and University of Denver professor Katie Levisay.

A lot of what they have to say has been covered in this course so far & even more will come in Lesson 6.  However, there are a few reasons that I think you might be interested in watching it.

First,

you’ll be able to hear, first hand what the scientific & medical world thinks of working with your hands.  These women are DOING the research & teaching about their findings.

Second,

while a good portion of the webinar is geared towards older people, they talk of dementia & various physical ailments (I assume it’s because much of their customer base is older)  you’ll probably think of places in your day when either you or your children, or even better BOTH of you, can benefit from doing handwork while watching the video.

Recently, CNN published an article  “This is your Brain on Knitting”, which is related to the Craftsy webinar (so basically recaps a far amount of the content).  The article shows that the medical & scientific (& hopefully more of the educational) communities are finally starting to recognize the positive effects that handwork (& other creative endeavours) can have on our lives.

I think it’s fabulous that a main stream media outlet felt that this story was worth covering.

It’s about time!

BONUS!!

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As I was working with the Handwork Planning Sheets from this lesson, while planning the rest of my children’s school year, I realized that these 2 sheets contain a lot of information. Originally, I had intended to do a very short overview of them as a bonus slideshow for you but as I started recording it didn’t take long to realize that that just wasn’t what was going to happen!

So, I am giving you TWO slideshows, one which focuses on the Handwork Benefits Sheet. It is best if you view this one first as it will enable you to take away much more from the following one.

Next, there is the giant, LONG Handwork Skills presentation…broken down by age/grade. I recommend that you listen to the whole thing (which will probably take you a few sessions) simply because each grade builds upon the one before.

Although, you will get the MOST benefit from listening to the entire slideshow, I know that some of you might prefer to only focus on a few of the years.  Below, I’m giving you the times when I begin discussing each age group.

*** I really, really think you’ll get a lot out of hearing the details for each period.  If you have young children, this slideshow will give you a firm grasp of how what you are doing now, will set the stage for their learning later on. If your children are older, you may find gaps that you’d like to fill or skills that you’d like to revisit.

Slideshow Timing

Age 0-3

Age 4-6 – 14:50

Age 7 – 29:36

Age 8 – 50:20

Age 9 – 1:07:17

Please NOTE:

The information in these slideshows draws heavily upon the Waldorf handwork tradition but is NOT bound by it. After much research, I have come to the conclusion that some skills & activities are best introduced in various ways & at different times according to the neurological, physical & emotional development of the child rather than depending solely on the child’s chronological age.

Also, introducing skills & projects in a home environment or to a group of mixed-aged children requires you to use even more ingenuity plus a good dose of creativity when planning your lessons. Even a class of similarly-aged children will have different skill levels. As I’m sure you’re learning – when it comes to handwork – one size does not fit all!

Rudolf Steiner was always adamant that teachers should teach from their own experience & that they should create lessons that are ALIVE for their children. He was insistent that they not simply follow certain methods because that was the way “it had always been done”.

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Before viewing these presentations

– make sure that you have printed out the

2 Handwork Sheets so that you can take notes!

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You are taking this course to understand more about handwork & its “hows, whens & whys” just as much as its “whats”. I hope that you will trust in yourself enough to take what you learn here & shape it to suit your circumstances. These are suggestions, prompts & outlines for you to construct YOUR handwork lessons upon.

Do you have something you’d like to add to this topic? Any questions ? We’d love to hear them – post them in the FB forum or send them to me HERE

Next in Lesson 5, we will focus on the goodies that make handwork so enticing.  We’ll also talk about how to set up your own Handwork area & the best ways to store all of your tools & materials.