Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Knitting


Today at Homeschool Group Learning, the theme was knitting and crochet.

I am not adept at these things ( surprise, surprise!) . I do, however, know a few Waldorf education inspired wool crafts for children.

So, I taught a few young children how to
finger knit. This site also shares a simple story and verses related to finger knitting. And some easy projects.

We graduated to basic knitting with coloured pencils, in lieu of knitting needles. Felt very rustic.

And if you are very adventurous you and the children can even make your own knitting needles.

Thomas and Anthony made poms poms. Wouldn't they look good as Christmas tree ornaments, in the Christmas colours above?

Alexander undertook a project in French knitting. Yes, knitting. I know what you are thinking. :-)

What did we learn while knitting?

Apart from hand eye co-ordination and creativity, we learned to be at peace.

There is something very restful about the rhythmic flow of finger knitting, for example - and about the conversations that flow when adults and children sit together to undertake a simple, quiet craft.

A teacher reflects on knitting with her sixth grade class.

Lessons learned. Personal reflections. Poignant.

A taste - "Last night three of our students and their mother were murdered. Five weeks ago, another sixth grade student was killed by gunfire. We are all in a state of shock. So in art today, I gave the kids the choice between knitting
and doing free drawing as a way to express feelings. Although a few said
they wanted to draw in their sketchbooks, none of them did. They all
knitted. Interesting. I knit when I'm upset or stressed, as a therapeutic
activity. It seems they are making the same choice. We talked about how
knitting could be healing and soothing (once you know what you're doing
). "

5 comments:

Mary G said...

Leonie,

Does this mean you're becoming a knitting convert? I've posted about this on my blog to make sure this momentous occasion doesn't go unheralded!

Leonie said...

I wish. :-) But I can really only do basic woll crafas. However, when each of my boys were little, we used to do these sorts of crafts every winter and I remember the peaceful feelings we shared while finger or pencil knitting together. Calm. Routine.

And I thought of you, my favouyrite knitter and your wool unit, as I typed the post!

Anonymous said...

i learned to knit in second grade...gave it up until i spent the summer in germany when i was 20 and knit a sweater. it fell by the wayside again until a couple of years ago when i dug up memories of my oma knitting socks...i was determined to succeed and have a few pairs to my credit ;-) it is very therapeutic...i knit almost half a sock in the l&d er right before the birth of my youngest....quite a few mistakes in that sock =D i'm off to visit mary's blog now....

Leonie said...

You went to a Waldorf trype of school, right?

Excuse my typos above - should be wool crafts! lol!

Mary's blog is full of knitting ideas and a good knitting and wool unit for kids...

Anonymous said...

yes...knitting was "hand arbeit" hand work :-) mary's blog is very cool!