December is just around the corner and suddenly your carefully planned routine
falls apart between holiday preparations, family gatherings, and the general
excitement in the air, it feels impossible to maintain any learning momentum.
You're torn between sticking to your plans and just giving
up until the end of January.
Well, today I am going to offer you the best of both worlds.
A way children can still learn work on the fine motor skills,
their hand eye coordination.
They can learn patience and how to just be, and you can even
tick off some curriculum boxes.
Back in the classroom, this was actually my favorite time of year.
This is the time that I would get children hooked.
On Handicrafts and every year when I saw that beautiful positive shift
into calm that hum, that would sit so beautifully, I used to think, I really
must start this at the beginning of the year and then continue throughout
the year, but it just never happened.
The one reason I think that Handicraft has this positive effect on children
is because they're making something.
With their hands, and I know it has a positive effect because children remember
this time well past their time with me.
In fact, in my previous school, at the end of the year, the year
sixes would give a presentation.
Recapping and reflecting on their primary school experience.
And whenever they got to the year two experience and the time they spent with
me, they would mention the things we made.
The French knitting and the sewing.
In the Charlotte Mason tradition, handicrafts actually
take a very central position.
In fact, she believed that handcrafts were an essential part of a child's education.
We are not talking here about gluing macaroni pieces onto a piece of card.
No, no, no.
Handcrafts are the making of something useful and worth keeping even something
you can make and give away as a gift.
And don't think for a minute the children are too young to be
learning to knit or crochet or weave because they absolutely can.
Charlotte Mason actually said that, when making handicrafts,
they should be taught slowly and carefully, and that slipshot work.
What a beautiful word should not be allowed, and that children should
therefore work within their compass.
In other words, within their capabilities.
Young children can definitely be taught to weave and use large tapestry needles,
even those plastic ones, and learn to stitch pieces of fabric together.
And they can definitely learn how to French knit using an old cotton spool
or even as I've done in the past so many times, an empty cardboard toilet roll
that the middle section and then tape some pops, sticks to the to the outside.
And I've had children create beautiful woven wall hangings.
They've done covers for tin cans using French knitting that they
would use as a pencil holder.
We've created hand sewn Christmas tree ornaments.
You know, if you think about it, a hundred years ago, children
frequently made their own toys, things from corn husks like dolls.
They carved and played with wooden toys, they wove baskets, and as they
got older, they were able to whittle wood and make beautiful carved items,
and it was really commonplace for girls to be able to do beautiful embroidery.
Nowadays, all we expect for them is to tap and swipe.
What a waste of a God-given creative talent.
I think that young children could do more because they were expected to.
Nowadays, I feel as though we have really lowered our expectations
of what children are capable of.
I've actually seen really smart switched on 10 year olds, unable to just hand
sew two pieces of cloth together with a simple in and out, repetitive
motion with a needle and thread.
And that's only because they've never had that exposure.
I think also the fact that Christmas has become so commercialized has something
to do with this, 'cause now we just buy stuff instead of make it right.
And also the fact that we're time poor.
Although I do question that, 'cause as I mentioned in last week's episode,
everyone has 24 hours in a day and some people tend to do so much more
with their 24 hours than others.
And I think those that can, are the ones that haven't allowed their phones
and social media to steal their time.
And as Charlotte Mason also said, we need to teach children
how to do these things properly.
And I found that children really valued what they had made.
They were proud of their achievements.
And the wonderful thing about making something with your
hands is that it's tangible.
You see the result in front of you, and as you prepare for Christmas, why
not get children involved in making things either as gifts for others or
even just something for themselves.
Pinterest is chockfull of ideas, and you can easily get some inspiration there.
Things that my students have made.
They've done pillows for their beds, for example.
They've done stuffed animals, as I said earlier, French
knitted pencil cover holders.
They've made place mats from French knitting and even sock puppets, and
we always made a Christmas ornament.
Usually I cut out the fabric pieces and then they would hand stitch that together
and we would fill it with hobby, full stuffing, attach a ribbon so that that
could be hung onto a Christmas tree.
And you could even use Felt instead of Fabric, which makes lovely Christmas
ornaments, or little animals, which children just love making.
Now you might be wondering, how on earth do you prove that these
activities have some kind of curriculum value to a moderator checking in,
that you're covering everything you're supposed to be covering?
Well, handcrafts, are the perfect solution for your design
and technologies curriculum.
They fit it perfectly.
Children need to draw their design on what they wanna make.
They've got to state what kind of materials they're going to use, and
then once the craft is finished, they take a photograph and then
they compare that to their finished design to the one that they drew.
They reflect on the changes they've made, if any at all, and why
they had to make those changes.
I have a free technologies and design graphic organizer for you.
I'll leave a link to it in the show notes so you can download
it there for your convenience.
Now, the other thing I have done in the past is I ask children
to write a procedural text.
Now, obviously you're gonna have to teach them how to write a
procedure before you do this.
But they wrote the procedure of the steps they took to create this handcraft.
So here you can, again, meet the curriculum requirements in English.
They could create a recipe of the instructions and then with a photograph
of their completed product, and they can make a poster of that.
There's so many different ideas.
Creating handicraft is really multifaceted learning experience.
It's developing children's hand eye coordination, their fine motor skills.
They're learning to focus and to be patient.
They're learning resilience because they will make mistakes, but it's
so easy to pull out, you know, a few rows of French knitting or a
few stitches, and then try again.
And when they see that connection between writing a procedural text and what they've
created, they start to see that learning is connected to real everyday experiences.
And really isn't that a far deeper, richer learning experience than what they're
getting by tapping and swiping a screen.
I've written a blog post about this topic.
And even posted pictures of the things that my own students have made.
I'll leave a link for you in the show notes so that you can go and
have a read and have a look of that.
And in conclusion, enjoy this time.
Stop stressing.
Enjoy this beautiful season.
And remember that learning doesn't just happen with pencils and paper.
It happens in the tangible life experiences, that we
all experience all the time.
Thank you so much for listening today.
I really appreciate you being here.
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Bye for now.