How to Actually Get Handicrafts DONE

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