Crafts in the Life of the Child (Part VI)

Yesterday's post was actually my conclusion, but after reviewing some of the comments from the week, I thought I'd tie up a few loose ends. Thank you all for participating so much in the discussion in the comments and via email. I love thinking through these things together, and even though we haven't thought through it exhaustively, I feel like I now have a better handle on where we are and where we're going and what I want that to look like, and I hope that you do, too.

With that said, let's take a quick look at those loose ends.

Crafting is Fun and Part of the Imago Dei
Jimmie said this:

I think that crafts are valuable for creativity, expression, and plain old fun.

And Rachel's comment goes along with this:

However, I would also argue that crafting is, in and of itself, not just twaddle. We are inherently creative beings; that is one small piece of being made in the image of God. As such, I believe we are compelled to create.

I'm tying these two comments together because one provides the reason for the other--children delight in creating because they are made in the image of the Creator. There is a verse which will nicely frame my next point:

When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.

--I Corinthians 13:11

A lot of folks simply discard any sort of crafts as they grow older and enter into an adulthood that produces very little of beauty. But if we are going to say, and we say this truly, that the nature of the child is a reflection of the imago dei, that they create not because they are children but because they are human, then we have to ask the question: what does it mean to become a man in this area?

I think handicrafts answer that question. This is how crafts grow up. They become more, not less. They become valuable not just as a fun activity, but as an expression of beauty that can delight others, that can even delight the Lord who inspires them. They become a simple, lifelong source of joy.

A Little More on Crafts "Reinforcing Lessons"
Do you remember when I posted quotes from Understood Betsy?I am thinking particularly of this:

It is possible that what stirred inside her head at that moment was her brain, waking up. She was nine years old, and she was in the third-A grade at school, but that was the first time she had ever had a thought of her very own. At home, Aunt Frances had always known exactly what she was doing, and had helped her over the hard places before she even knew they were there; and at school her teachers had been carefully trained to think faster than the scholars. Somebody had always been explaining things to Elizabeth Ann so carefully that she had never found out a single thing for herself before. This was a very small discovery, but it was her own. Elizabeth Ann was as excited about it as a mother bird over the first egg that hatches.

I noticed a couple days ago that this quote is also posted over at Charlotte Mason Help. (I am really enjoying exploring that little corner of the Internet.) This quote is an introduction to considering Charlotte Mason's opinions on...are you ready for it?...elaborate lesson plans.

Lindafay, who was once a Teacher-of-the-Year as a public school teacher, explains in her article Let's Talk About Lesson Plans in a CM Education, that she used to be Super Teacher. It sounds to me like she probably created the best lesson plans one could imagine. She says that she planned out in advance all that her students would learn, the mental connections they would make, and so on. It sounds exactly what I remember studying in the one (tedious) education course I took in college.

Lindafay drops the bomb on this subject:

Miss Mason was very much against carefully prepared lessons that correlated several subjects together. She felt that this made the teacher do most of the work (thinking), spoon-feeding information to the children while creating a teacher-dependent atmosphere. Instead, she believed children need to make those connections themselves.

She has lots of quotes from Mason's works (which are quoting from scholars at the time of her writing), and this article is well worth reading if you want to think through this subject.

Since we have been talking about crafts, I want to bring it back to crafts, and crafts only, because such quotes could open a really large can of worms, and, it being Advent and all, I really don't want to inadvertantly talk myself into doing some sort of ten-day series on lesson plans.

It might scare away my readers!

And my self.

Moving on.

Mason quotes a certain Paterson who wrote:

Too much learning, without requiring any effort on the part of the student. The teacher works too hard to use all her training and experience, but the student does nothing. If education is made too easy, then students are robbed of the active mental challenge of learning. Learning can be a difficult challenge, but the exercise teaches students to concentrate and to work independently.

Following this quote, Lindafay herself explains:

Eventually, I realized that during my teaching career, I had treated children like baby birds, chewing the food first and feeding them bit by bit as if they were helpless in this 'getting of knowledge' process.

To put it in the terms I often use here on the blog, this is the difference between educating for freedom and educating for slavery. Students raised up to be dependent on teachers are intellectual slaves. Like Betsy, they are incapable of an independent thought life.

If we bring it back to crafts, when we teach on the verse, "We all like sheep have gone astray" and then break out the cotton balls and glue and make a sheep, we are not reinforcing an independent thought life.

In fact, we aren't even reinforcing the thought, because the thought is that we have all gone astray. If a child is familiar with sheep, he will know they are incredibly stupid creatures who desperately need direction, and he will connect that this means it is inevitable that we go astray. No amount of cotton balls will teach him this if he is not acquainted with sheep, but they just might distract from the point.

In my own home, I would rather see reinforcing-type crafts be spontaneous rather than carefully planned and executed because I thought they were cute and somehow connected to whatever was at hand. On day one of this discussion, Jami expressed this perfectly:

[H]ere creativity abounds and after reading about Egyptians the kids may get out the Sculpey clay and make jewelery. Or they might draw and cut-out Greek paper dolls. Or draw elaborate maps and pictures from Wind in the Willows. These *could* be crafts, I suppose. But they don't feel like it. I think of these creations as 3-D narrations.

Let's examine the difference here. In the former instance (the lesson-plan instance), the teacher dictates the thoughts of the child and decides to reinforce her predetermined thoughts through a craft. In the latter, if I might embellish Jami's house a little bit, the teacher has set forth a feast of ideas. These ideas are living and active and they take hold of the imagination. Because of this, the children do crafts as a response and reflection of the ideas they are chewing on. In the end, we might have two identical pieces of clay jewelry, but one represents the teacher's thoughts and the other represents the child's thoughts.

Because the mind is nourished on ideas, our time as teachers is best spent learning how to help the child...have ideas. After that, narrations, even 3-D narrations, will happen quite naturally.

Purging Paper Crafts
In case you all didn't catch it, Rachel R. had a great post over on her blog on just this subject. She is taking a more direct route than what I have done in the past, which is to say, sneaking around my house in the dead of night throwing away paper projects. I will repeat what I commented there: I think the process she described will actually make her daughter a better artist. Go read it if you have "masterpieces" piling up all over your house.

On Not Being Crafty
One of the things we learn as home educating mothers is where we ourselves are lacking. Actually, motherhood in general teaches this, but giving lessons certainly opens doors to rooms we tried to close off, now doesn't it? We all got through school not being good at math/art/literature/spelling/whatever and now we go and decide to teach our children and there you have it: our flaws are back, staring us in the face again.

This last year has taught me two lessons: (1) Don't let ideals discourage or intimidate. Let them inspire. (2) View known and discovered weaknesses or aversions as a lack in my character, education, or formation.

Even though I only plan on discussing (2), I put (1) in there because lots of times it is through ideals that we become aware of our weaknesses and aversions. I have spent time trying to embrace aspects of life which, ten years ago, I would have declared a complete waste of time. Let's just say I didn't grow up dreaming of a farm (even a microfarm) or hoping I'd own a flock of laying ducks. These things are things I have grown to love, but they are not a reflection of who I have always been.

It used to be that when I discovered that someone loved something I thought was silly or somehow inferior to my own interests, I thought that that person was somehow lacking. Now I see that it is I who am lacking, for God created a very big world, full of things worthy of being loved by mankind, and if I do not love those things, there is something lacking in me, not in what God has made.

We will never be perfect enough to teach our children everything. However, as we combat our own deficiencies before the watching eyes of our children, this just might be one of the greatest lessons we teach them. They will see that humans, not just human children, learn. They will see that old dogs really can learn new tricks. They will learn that flaws can be remedied, weaknesses made strong.

And we all build memories in the process.

I hope that, ten years from now, I will write a post and tell you all that I am, in fact, a crafty mom.

Where are you going to grow?

___________________________________
A Couple More Things:
I was already done writing this post when I noticed two wonderful comments. I would love to share them with any of you who did not catch them. The first is from Willa, and the second from Rahime.

Crafts in the Life of the Child (Part V)

Do you consider art narration or nature journaling to be a craft? Whatever we call them, or however we categorize them, we can see how these two dovetail with handicrafts when we consider the formation of a whole person, a free person. Today's children have many leisure hours, and statistics tell us that many of those leisure hours are spent consuming movies, television, music, videogames, text messages, and so on. They are producing very little, if anything at all.

My guess is that many of these children don't even really know how, or don't have the materials available to even use for making an attempt at producing something beautiful.

One of the characteristics of a free man is that he does not need others to provide for him, including entertainment for him. In fact, he is able to produce something that gives joy to others. Reminds me of a verse:

He who steals must steal no longer; but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with one who has need.

Ephesians 4:28

Now, obviously this verse is talking about a man taking a job and sharing the proceeds. However, we still know that the Christian life is a life which overflows. Habits of production (I hate using that word; I do not mean factories) have the potential to overflow, while habits of consumption of electronic media and entertainment-based toys do not. It is impossible to overflow that which we are consuming ourselves, which comes from outside of ourselves. Mountain springs overflow from within; waters pouring down a bottomless drain are wasted, even to the drain.

I think of art narration and nature journaling, along with musical training and handicrafts as a four-pronged strategy for growing the soul up into an adulthood that has the potential to overflow, to give generously, and to need little. Riches do not necesarily result in generosity, but rich lives do. This is part of what it means to live a rich life: to be able to see beauty and imitate it, record it, produce more of it, and share it, blessing others with it.

Many of us cringe when we think of all of the factories our lives depend upon. Raising a different type of children will produce a different type of culture, for their very lives will demand it. What need of mass-produced plastic Target Christmas ornaments has a skilled craftsman? What need of a Chinese sweatshop has a skilled tailor or embroiderer? We require these things because we cannot (or will not) create them ourselves.

I, for one, mostly cannot.

But that will change.

There are a number of things that keep me from handicrafts. I could blame the budget, but when I get to the core of it, my biggest hesitation is due to my own ignorance. Once I realized that, I felt challenged to discard my fears and insecurities and join the adventure with my children.

This is what I meant when I wrote that a huge benefit of homeschooling is its ability to produce an educated populace because it stretches and grows the older generations along with the younger. If we rise to the challenge--and it is a huge challenge to attempt to educate a child into a full life--we are changed.

This means that some of us will really grasp math for the first time. Some of us will read books no one introduced us to when we were children.

Me? Well, it looks like I'll be learning to work with my hands to make something beautiful.

What about you?

Crafts in the Life of the Child (Part IV)

As I've been thinking about this topic of crafts, I began asking myself a question a lot like one of Mystie's questions from earlier this week: Didn't Charlotte Mason promote handicrafts? Is this distinct from paper crafts? Do handicrafts have a value for the child that craft-crafts (for lack of a better term) do not? Why do I get the feeling that Mason would agree with my disdain for paper placemats?

Naturally, I went to look for the source. Only then did I remember that I loaned two of my six Charlotte Mason volumes to my friend, Nicole, the very ones I would need to reference. So I went to the second-best source: Lindafay. It gets better. I had forgotten that Lindafay had begun a website called Charlotte Mason Help.

This is a Charlotte Mason 101 course, ladies. You simply must check it out, especially if you are attempting Ambleside. From watching the Yahoo list, I'd say that the moms who struggle with Ambleside tend to be the ones that do not yet have the big picture when it comes to Charlotte Mason and what she was really trying to do.

Lindafay helped me begin thinking through handicrafts versus crafts. Remember my general objections to paper crafts?

1. Crafts tend to have no real purpose.


2. Crafts are disposable.


3. Crafts can discourage the Christian virtues of care and thrift.

Charlotte Mason Help's section on handicrafts begins with a quote from Mason herself:

The points to be borne in mind in children's handicrafts are: (a) that they should not be employed in making futilities such as pea and stick work, paper mats, and the like; (b) that they should be taught slowly and carefully what they are to do; (c) that slipshod work should not be allowed; (d) and that, therefore, the children's work should be kept well within their compass.

Again we know that the human hand is a wonderful and exquisite instrument to be used in a hundred movements exacting delicacy, direction and force; every such movement is a cause of joy as it leads to the pleasure of execution and the triumph of success. We begin to understand this and make some efforts to train the young in the deft handling of tools and the practice of handicrafts. Some day perhaps, we shall see apprenticeship to trades revived and good and beautiful work enforced. In so far, we are laying ourselves out to secure that each shall "live his life"; and that, not at his neighbor's expense; because, so wonderful is the economy of the world that when a man really lives his life he benefits his neighbor as well as himself; we all thrive in the well being of each.

One of the things I adore about Charlotte Mason is that she sees the universe in everything she does and suggests. So she does not just see a child with a pair of knitting needles, but the potential for joy and excellence in the soul and in the body, even the betterment of the whole world.

This quote above gives guidelines for handicrafts, and it also calls paper crafts by this name: futilities. But where do we learn about the distinction between crafts and handicrafts. Is the only difference that one is futile and the other is not? How do I discern between the two?

In her article Handicrafts Should be Handy, Lindafay shares a bit of what I myself have felt: the guilt over throwing away paper crafts, the pressure from authorities to load children up on crafts, that feeling that there is something better out there.

This, by the way, is the perfect time to raise James Daniels' timeless question: are the best things being drowned out by things that are merely (lowercase-g) good?

Lindafay then says that the word handicrafts implies usefulness.

Out goes the transient, the disposable nature of the thing. Enter utility, but not in a utilitarian sense. Like Mason before her, Lindafay sees the universe:

Children who learn to create with their hands know how to use their leisure time wisely. This is just another step that leads to a FULL life.

If you haven't read Mason's works, this is why I love them. Her aim is nothing more than a full life resulting from a generous education. This is why her work dovetails nicely with classical Christian education, whose goal is the nurture of the soul itself. Even though there are distinctions between Mason and the classical approach, there are commonalities, and I find that the two work nicely together in our home.

It is hard for our post-Industrial minds to cut the ties with the view of education in which the goal is a job with which to earn money. The goal of education, true education, is a full life, and that life well-lived.

So how do handicrafts differ from crafts? The first distinction is what we just learned: they are useful in the whole scheme of life. The end result is something of worth.

Lindafay shares with us the four characteristics of handicrafts:

1. The projects should be useful and/or decorative: if it doesn’t make the home more beautiful, it is not worthy of the child’s time.
2. The child should be taught slowly and carefully what to do; no slipshod work should ever be allowed.
3. It should suit the child’s abilities.
4. It should bless others.

My new thinking is that it isn't that I don't want to do crafts, it just is that I want the crafts we do to have more meaning, more purpose, and to really contribute to growing the soul of my child. I do think that the child is growing through simple paper-and-glue-and-possibly-pipecleaners-and-feathers-projects when they are under six or seven. But I want to grow these children; I don't want to leave them languishing at seven-year-old levels.

Mason said the hand was capable of what? "A hundred movements exacting delicacy, direction and force; every such movement is a cause of joy as it leads to the pleasure of execution and the triumph of success." I want that joy and triumph for my children. I think that it is only possible for them to experience this throughout the years if I introduce handicrafts, progressively allowing them to grow in the use of their hands and small tools.

I am slowly devising a plan for my oldest, who is ready to move on in this area. He has perfected the skills he is going to gain from doing regular paper crafts (not that I would forbid it...I am talking about direction and what I want to offer to him). Our first real term-long handicraft commences in Term Two this year (he doesn't know this yet): knot-tying. He's going to learn to tie all of the knots you ever saw and many of the ones you didn't. Hopefully, he won't tie up his sisters. As I look into Term Three, the most logical steps seem to be something like origami or elaborate paper cutting--something that utilizes and stretches the skills he has already gained. I remember that Mason said to expect careful and precise work by keeping that work "within the child's compass."

As he grows older, I don't want him to "outgrow" crafts, and I think this will only happen because I didn't take him to the next level when I needed to.

Crafts in the Life of the Child (Part III)

If there is one thing we all probably agree on, it is that crafting by using scissors, tape, glue, and a dash of imagination is a fun way for children to develop their motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and all of those other technical descriptions developed by the "experts." We parents may use different words. We say that it gives them greater control over their bodies, and we instinctively know that body control is part of the big picture of self-control. We also say that is a step in the direction of developing creativity, artistic ability, and craftsmanship.

I have seen my seven-year-old go through three or four attempts on a creation before he was satisified. This is what I mean by a step toward craftsmanship.

So while my Part II post might have made it sound like I question all crafts at all times, I really don't. I think that children should grow, so I think that if an eight-year-old is still cutting paper into bits and gluing it on a page, we aren't really heading anywhere. But this doesn't mean that we shouldn't let a two- or three-year-old begin to get a handle on paper cutting skills, as well as gluing, drawing, and taping skills.

My oldest was basically alone for four years. My second child wasn't born until he was nearly three, and so she was a baby until he was four. This means that she slept a lot and he was generally the focus of my attention. So, unlike the other children, he learned in an organic sort of way. All I had were paper, scissors, and crayons. He learned to cut by cutting, to color by coloring, to glue or tape by gluing and taping.

Make sense?

But by the time my second child was ready for that, I didn't have the time because I was beginning school with Number One and caring for newborn Number Three. However, this particular child (Number Two) craves these sorts of activities. She was practically born with a pencil in her hand. This means that to deny her in this area was really to deny something she needed.

I have already mentioned that I am not a crafty mom. This means I didn't really have the brain power to think of how to give her what she needed. So I searched around and found some helpful workbook-type materials that were relatively inexpensive.

Our favorites have been Kumon workbooks. They build skills one on the other, and it takes a short amount of time to complete one task. So far, we have been pleased with Let's Cut Paper!,More Lets Cut Paper!,Let's Fold!,More Let's Fold!,and we are currently using My First Book Of Cutting.She now folds perfectly on the line, and is well on her way to cutting out complicated objects.

My two-year-old will begin using these same workbooks quite soon because I have been so pleased with them.

What I have observed in the greater world, however, is second-graders doing what I'm doing with my four-year-old. Now, certainly, their end result looks a little bit nicer. But one of the things I want to think about in regard to the craft issue is the idea of moving on and forward. We'll talk about that a bit tomorrow.

Crafts in the Life of the Child (Part II)

I have spent an excessive amount of time lately pondering the idea of crafts. What is it about them that makes me uncomfortable? Why do my instincts tell me that spending my teacher-related energy on planning and executing the building of a paper Celestial City would be a poor use of time and resources? I thought about this when I did dishes, laundry, and cooking. It took a couple days, but it finally dawned on me that my problem stems from a combination of factors:

1. Crafts tend to have no real purpose. Exceptions here can be made for birthday cards, paper Christmas ornaments, and so on. But in general, crafts on a daily basis, and even most Sunday School crafts (exceptions, again, for Mother's Day imprints, and the fine laminated Thanksgiving placemat my son brought home this year), are completely and totally disconnected from the real world. The philosophy of Sunday School tends to maintain that crafts "support the lesson" but if you have ever interviewed a child afterwards you know that these things tend to distract from the lesson.
   
   This, by the way, is why I will never do unit studies.
   
   Famous last words.
   
   Ahem.



2. Crafts are disposable. I have a hard time putting my heart and soul into something that is destined for the trashcan. I know a couple sentimental moms that save every last scrap of paper upon which their child doodled, but multiply that by four children (or more, if you have more!) and you'll end up living in a dumpster by year's end.
   
   We can joke about this all we want, but in the end, if I can think of one phrase that I want to characterize the education I am offering here, it is Permanent Things. If we are going to spend all of this time studying the imperishable, why would we contradict this by encouraging the children to produce the perishable?



3. Crafts that fall into the above two objections are in tension with the Christian virtues of care and thrift. They are characteristic of affluence. Affluence, by the way, is not bad. In fact Scripture talks a lot about affluence being a blessing of the Lord upon a culture (which is why we will be quickly losing ours, if we do not repent, by the way). However, children are not affluent. Unless your family is very wealthy, your children will start out exactly the way you did: with a few dollars in their pockets and correspondingly few bills to pay, ready to make their ways in the world.
   
   Do you read old books? I do. They shape me, and they put our current culture in perspective. A hundred and fifty years ago, paper was an extravagance and folks couldn't afford much of it. It was reserved for the writing of real things: letters, books, records. It was not for children to scribble upon a tiny bit and then toss in the trash.
   
   Even though our culture has changed, and paper is more readily available than it once was, the mentality that comes with this disturbs me a bit. I once had a child (old enough to know better) go through the notepad I use for my grocery list and write on every single page. When I told that child I expected my things to be treated with more respect, the child shrugged and told me that I could just buy a new one.
   
   This wasting of small things--paper, tape, glue, and so on--is, on the one hand, potentially harmless and yet, on the other hand, completely at odds with the Christian virtues of care and thrift.

So, you see, there is a lot more to this issue than meets the eye.

This doesn't mean, by the way, that I am going to go trash my craft box. No, I still fully intend to give my children their occasional craft hour as I've been doing. But I want to do it with my eyes wide open, not just swallowing culture whole and without question. I also want to offer this to them, in this current time in our lives, but with an aim toward something different--better--in the future.

If our goal for them is care and thrift, and also fine workmanship, and other such noble qualities, perhaps there is a better way to accomplish this.

Children have, by the way, always made disposable crafts: mud pies, sculptures with mud and twigs and leaves, drawings in the sand made with sticks. This was, I think, a more appropriate media for the endeavor. The world is there for children to explore, and as they do so they will engage in natural "crafts" that, rather than piling up as trash, are washed away naturally by the wind and rain, the slate clean for another "work of art" tomorrow.

Crafts in the Life of the Child (Part I)

There was a time when I thought I was a horrible mother because I hated crafts. First, there was the mess. I did not like getting everything out because this was soon followed by the tedious job of putting everything back. Second, there was too much stuff. If you have four children making a craft in four separate Sunday School classes on four Sundays per month, this math shows the problem:

How many crafts come home per month?

4 x 1 x 4 x 1 = 16

Perhaps you didn't catch that.

SIXTEEN CRAFTS PER MONTH.

Sixteen sheep made out of cotton-balls. Sixteen paper placemats that bleed ink onto your dining-table the second someone spills their water. Sixteen watchamacallits and thingamajigs.

Sixteen.

Wow. I never really did that math before. It was worse than I thought.

So you see, having boatloads of junk crafts pouring into my house and languishing on my countertops (because I feel guilty throwing them away) was enough to keep me from adding any crafts whatsoever to our days.

But then, Neighbor M.'s dad brought craft supplies over one day. The children were so excited that I couldn't say no. So I said yes. And they made a happy, sticky mess all over my living room. Some of what they made was actually quite good, so I cannot begrudge them their fun even a little bit.

However, they suddenly decided it was time to go play and they all left. I surveyed the living room and it was Not Good. I worked hard to get it safe enough to set Baby O. free after his nap.

Since then, I have slowly come up with a plan for allowing craft time without losing my mind. Here is what works for me, not necessarily in particular order:

1. Keep all supplies in one giant box. (Disclaimer: no paint is allowed without supervision ever, ever, ever.) I actually had the children decorate the box on the first day we used it. It says "CRA-FS" on it. Guess we aren't done learning to spell yet, now are we? This box is big enough that everything fits in it. I even looked in nooks and crannies all over my house and added whatever I could to it that I had stashed somewhere else. Clean up now involves only two steps: put trash in the trashcan and all of the supplies back into the box. They don't even have to be put back neatly. Little people can dump armfuls of construction paper into it, for all I care.

2. Have someone to give/mail the projects to. This keeps me from feeling guilty. No throwing away necessary.

3. Make sure the children clean up before Baby O. wakes from his nap. This prevents chaos.

4. Four special frames for four special people. Each child has a frame in the playroom that fits one masterpiece. We do not change them very often, and it adds a fun, needed touch to the room.

So that, my friends, is how I manage, as a non-crafty mommy, to allow crafts after all.

However, this is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg on this subject. What I really want to begin to explore is whether or not crafts have any inherent value for children. Are they a waste of time? Do we really need to encourage crafts to be good mothers, or good teachers? Are some crafts superior to other crafts? Are crafts a symptom of a certain type of culture? Think about it, and we'll talk more in Part II.

DecemberTerm Average Day Chart (Attempt 1)

Average Day Chart DecemberTerm 2009