Category Archives: Handicrafts

How to Actually Get Handicrafts DONE

5 Replies
Ice Candles

Recently my grandmother told her friend, “I’m looking forward to an afternoon of knitting.” Her friend responded that she doesn’t know how to do anything like that.

My grandmother is in her 80’s and lives alone. Obviously there are times when she needs to pass an afternoon with some quiet occupation. She drives, but she doesn’t go out a lot, and she does like to read and watch TV. Of course, she loves having visitors. But when you scale life down, stop all the running around, have fewer people in the home to constantly interact with, what do you do with yourself? Do you look for some way to entertain yourself, or do you do something worthy?

I’m afraid we are a culture of entertainment. We zone out to the TV, or the radio, or even to a book. That last is something we in the CM community would think well of, but maybe we should consider the motivation. Sometimes, it’s just entertainment, the same as TV.

Charlotte Mason said, ‘He practises various handicrafts that he may know the feel of wood, clay, leather, and the joy of handling tools, that is, that he may establish a due relation with materials. But, always, it is the book, the knowledge, the clay, the bird or blossom, he thinks of, not his own place or his own progress. – vol 6 pg 31”

In other words, this is not entertainment, or a way of building ourselves up. This is a way of NOT thinking of ourselves. A way of doing something worthy of an afternoon.

Teaching our children new handicrafts have four purposes to my mind:

  1. A possible lifelong hobby (fire making and camp fire cooking, knitting, woodworking, sewing, basket making, carving)
  2. A skill which can be used to gift friends and family (homemade ornaments, sewing, knitting, preserving food, cooking, card making, basket making, carving)
  3. A life skill that allows you to care for family or otherwise makes things more comfortable in your home (cooking, preserving food, cleaning)
  4. A means to training hand-eye coordination (all of the above examples)

Did you notice that some of those examples fit into more than one category?

Did you also notice that they do not include hand-stamped turkey placemats for Thanksgiving? There is nothing wrong with crafts. In fact, hand-stamped turkey placemats for Thanksgiving can be a nice addition to your table on that festive day. Furthermore, to some people, crafting is their hobby, so I do not mean to disparage the idea. I’m just suggesting that you be wary of doing noodle-necklaces and calling it a handicraft.

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. – vol 1 pg 315-316

And just a little tangent – our society thinks of sports as hobbies, but tell that to my wheelchair bound senior citizen friend. I bet he’s happy he can do woodworking, because his basketball league days are done. Sports are great, but almost everytime Charlotte Mason talks about Drill or other physical activities, she also mentioned handicrafts.

I’ve come to my point, (finally!) I have it on good authority that some of you go into a state of stress just by thinking about doing handicrafts. So, I’m here to talk you down from the ledge, and help you get the ball rolling.

1. Find something that is age appropriate for your kids. (See CM’s point “d” above.) It’s not really a handicraft for them if you have to do it all. However, don’t underestimate their capabilities. My grandmother was raised in England and was taught, in school, how to knit socks in the first grade! That’s so cool, but I’m not going to go that far, because of the next point.

2. It’s ok for you to learn right along with them. One spring we pulled the lawnmower out of the garage, only to find that it wouldn’t start. My husband would be out of town for at least another month, and I knew a repair shop would get it back to me about the time summer ended, so I decided that we would have to give it a tune up ourselves. My 13 year old son, with clear doubt in his voice, said, “You know how to do that?” At which point, I told him, “Of course not, but I know how to look it up on YouTube.” Just imagine what you are teaching your child when you search for instructions, and make mistakes, and smash your finger, and pull through. More than the skill of tuning up your lawn mower, I can tell you.

It doesn’t always need to be so dramatic, but, I hope you get the point. You may never have sewn something in your life, but I bet you can find a tutorial on how to sew on a button. Here’s a great one on the blog The Art of Manliness. Just in case your son’s think this is not a worthy skill. 😉

3. Pick something that you are all interested in. Don’t tackle a project that you think you should learn, but rather something that is interesting to you and your kids. This will help motivate you all. In the future, when you are better at the process of learning a new handicraft, you can tackle something harder.

4. Set a time for this. Trust me, it won’t happen if you don’t have a time frame in which to do it. Don’t say, “On Wednesday we will make baskets,” but rather, every Wednesday afternoon at 3:00 we will work on our basket project, for the length of term 1. The first Wednesday might be used to do research together: finding a good set of instructions or a tutorial, figuring out what you need in the way of supplies. Do you need to order them online, or should you make a shopping list for things around town?

Another benefit to getting the kids to help in the prep work is that you now have the kids involved. Which means that now it’s not just you vs. your procrastinating side. You are all working together to promote the project. In other words, they can nag you to do it, and you’ll feel bad if you let them down. Hey, whatever works! 😉

5. Get your supplies together: gather what you already own and go shop for or borrow the rest. I think this may be a big road block for a lot of people – they think, or know, that they don’t have everything they need, so they don’t get started. This is one of those times when you will have to just do it. Go back over the reasons why you are doing handicrafts in the first place if you need motivation, but get it done.

6. Visualize the process. This one may not come easy to you, but I’ve found it helpful. During a time when I’m not distracted, like when I’m walking on the treadmill, or pulling weeds from the garden, I imagine myself going through the process. If I think of each step, then I frequently figure out supplies that I overlooked, or an additional step that would make it all flow better.

It has another benefit too. A good portion of the difficulty of getting a new project off the ground is the act of starting. When you visualize doing it, it is almost like you have actually done the thing, hence, you have sort-of started already.

7. Don’t be hard on yourself. What part of a Charlotte Mason education were you familiar with when you started homeschooling your kids this way? Had you ever done dictation before? Had you ever read Plutarch? OK, maybe you have little kids and still haven’t. My point is that most of this was new to all of us when we got started, but we have faith in the value of each aspect of it. We trust Charlotte Mason, and we just do our best. Then, every year we get better. I often complain that I should know what I’m doing just about the time all of my kids graduate!

You are giving your children a HUGE gift by introducing them to handicrafts. They will be people who say, “No, I’ve never built a garden gate, but I bet I can figure out how.” They will be people with confidence. They will have something to do of an afternoon when they are old. They may learn a skill which they can use to bless other people, like cooking a healthy meal for a sick friend, or making a blanket for a new baby, or carving an old fashioned santa ornament for grandma. You will bless them. Learning a new handicraft together, even if it doesn’t go that smoothly – and maybe especially if it doesn’t – is the stuff of memories.

P.S. Our first term handicraft this year will be felt birds. One of my daughters has plans to make this felt horse for a Christmas present. We also thought felt play food was too cute and would be a great gift.

My son has had a hankering to try a few more bird houses, so he might start work on that instead. He’s been a pretty good sport about handicrafts that aren’t so boyish, and I suspect he would think making that horse is a cool idea.

Related:
A few of the handicrafts we’ve done
And a few more from my other blog:
Making Walnut Ink
Cheese and Pizza Making

Bleach Pen T-Shirt Art

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Every year we have one co-op handicraft that is just plain crafty. This year I chose bleach pen t-shirts. I had seen some neat ones, but then during Christmas break we tried it out with less than what I would call success. Of all the instruction I found of the internet, none really pulled it all together. But alas, all the tidbits gleaned here and there, did indeed come together and we found success.

Bleach pens are expensive, and when we do a thing, we kind of like to go big. For that reason we definitely wanted to make our own.  Here is what worked well:

Cascade Dishwasher Detergent with BLEACH.
We tried various make-it-yourself bleach gel solutions, but I was never happy with the consistency. In addition, the bleach broke down the cornstarch in the mixture within a short time, making the solution watery.

Empty Elmer’s Glue Bottles.
The glue bottles are cheap, even brand new and full of glue! Plus they have the perfect size opening to let the bleach solution out just a little at a time. I emptied out the glue into a baggie, so as not to waste it, rinsed it out, and filled it with the dishwasher detergent.

Vinegar
We started out with it in a spray bottle full of vinegar, but in the end we just dumped about half a gallon of vinegar in a bucket.

Do’s and Don’t Do’s

  • You can recycle something you already have, but if you choose something new, there is no need to wash it. 
  • Be creative. You don’t have to stick to shirts.  You can do a bleach design on your jeans, or leggings, or a hat, or whatever you want.
  • However, you should choose something that is 100% cotton. Sometimes other blends will work, but you won’t know until you’ve spent time making your fabulous creation, washed it and found…nothing. Ask me how I know this. ;
  • Don’t get the bleach solution on your hands. It’s bad stuff! Maybe wear gloves.
  • Think about doing this outside – for the fresh air, and also because the UV rays help the bleach do it’s thing.
  • Think about wearing something that you don’t love while doing this project. Think play-clothes. Just in case.

Steps to a successful project:

  1. Place a piece of wax paper inside your shirt. Or you can use a cookie sheet, or paper bag or whatever. Just make sure the bleach solution can’t soak through.
  2. Use a piece of chalk to sketch your design. Search “bleach pen t-shirts” on google and you’ll find a lot of ideas.
  3. Start bleaching. You might want to test the flow out on a paper towel. Don’t drag the tip across the shirt, but rather float a bit.
  4. Leave the shirt for 15-30 minutes. Different materials take a different amount of time to bleach out. For instance, black changes to a rust color first, and then goes to white. Use your creative license. 
  5. Wash the shirt in the sink. If you have a sprayer it works well. Otherwise, wear gloves and scrub the bleach away.
  6. Spray it with vinegar or dunk it in a bucket of vinegar to halt the bleaching process.  Without this step the bleach will continue doing it’s bleachy thing until you have holes in your garment – even though you wash it.
  7. Wash your shirts in the washing machine.
  8. Wear it proudly!

    Are Your Handicrafts Manly Enough?

    2 Replies
    Mitchell starting a fire.

    We’ve done a lot of handicrafts. A lot! I’m tempted to start listing them all off for you, but then my perfectionist side would take over, and I’d have to spend the next hour making sure I didn’t leave anything out!

    Some of the handicrafts we’ve done have been very manly. For instance, we spent the entire Fall term of this school year learning to build campfires and then to cook over them. Other times we have done handicrafts that were very girly, like knitting or sewing a pillow.

    Figuring out what tinder burns longest.

    Regardless of the perceived correct gender attached to each handicraft, all of my kids have been required to participate fully. And you know what? All of them have wanted to participate fully.

    When I think back, I didn’t want to marry a man who didn’t have a clue how do his own laundry, nor did I want to be the kind of girl who couldn’t change a flat tire. I love taking care of my hubby, but things happen in life, and I think we should be prepared as much as we can. (I had a flat tire recently, and let me tell you how happy I was that I could handle it.)

    That all said, sometimes, with this homeschooling business, I just wade in and hope it all works out in the end. So, I was thrilled recently when I received a text from one of my brothers, whom I had homeschooled from 6th grade on, thanking me for teaching him how to sew! He is at a school to become a certified welder, and he had torn his work jacket. Nothing to do about it but sew it up, and he did just that. I was so proud of him, but I was even more proud that he thought to thank me for teaching him the skill in the first place.

    A few days after that, my son picked up his knitting again. I taught them all how to knit several year ago, and since then my girls have continued to knit off and on regularly. My son has made two scarves over time, (camouflage colored of course,) but it has been a while since he has done any knitting. I can’t help but show you the picture…

    Do you see the huge knife attached to his left leg, and the other knife on the table beside him? I laughed so hard, and asked him if he was overcompensating, trying to make up for the fact that he was knitting. You may not know it, but he is also outfitted in full Bear Grylls attire there. Bear Grylls is a survivalist who has several TV shows including Man vs. Wild and Get Out Alive. 

    When Lewis and Clark and company made it to the Pacific ocean they stopped for the winter to regroup. While they were there they stayed busy taking care of themselves, among other things. They had to feed themselves, make moccasins and other clothing, and I suspect they did a bit of dehydrating. Soap anyone?

    On the flip side, I was originally one of two girls. (I say originally, because later on my parents adopted nine more kids.) When I was a kid there were no boys around to shovel horse poop, or help dad roof the barn, or feed the animals in the dark when we got home late, so my sister and I did it. We did all the things that maybe my parents would have had the boy of the family do, had there been one. Frankly, I’m grateful there wasn’t one, because I learned to do a lot of things that I wouldn’t otherwise have even thought I could do.

    Last spring and summer my husband spent a lot of time out of town for work. Of course, the lawn mower chose that time to die, so I told my son, “We better figure out how to fix it.” He said, “You can do that?” and I replied, “Well, I never have before, but we can try.”

    In the end, it’s all about fostering confidence. The confidence to replace a button or build a fire, knit a hat or repair the lawn mower. Whatever your gender.