Homeschooling - for the non-crafty mom

[Vanilla09]

Hi all! I am a long-time lurker, but a first time poster. DH and I have 3 dc - DS6, DD5 and DD1.5, with a little one on the way. We "officially" started homeschooling this year, meaning that DS6 is now registered in 1st grade (where we live in Europe, homeschooling can only happen with a certain amount of constrains). DD5 is actually following the same curriculum, as she is very ready for "school".

 

We homeschool because it is, for now, the better option for our children, from an academic and social point of view. Things are going well, I am happy with what we have managed to do so far. We don't however, do any crafts. Our homeschool is very "book focused". We read a lot, do spelling and handwriting exercises, use Singapour for maths. Both kids are learning to play the piano, and we do one lesson of geography, science and history per week, where I normally read aloud from a book while they colour a picture with some relation to the topic, then we discuss what I read and finally memorize a (very short) summary. I was recently reading an old thread on teaching history, and I am in awe of the various activities some homeschoolers have done with their children on topics from SOTW vol.1. However, I know we/I could never do that...Partly because I have a toddler and a baby on the way and am not feeling well, but mostly because this just isn't the way I work. I love books, read-alouds, discussions, and assignments. I am very, very bad at crafts. Simple crafty endeavours take me ages to imagine, organize and implement. Each time I have tried, we were all very frustrated by the end of the experiment. I think, or rather I know, that I am not really manual, or sensory oriented. I am exceptionally bad at drawing - most kindergartners draw better than I do. This is not to say that we spend our whole days with books - we spend a fair amount of time outside, and we are lucky to be living close to the forest where we can do a lot of nature walks, but...no crafts for science, geography or history.

 

I am wondering whether we are alone in this, and whether more experienced homeschool moms would think I am harming the children in some way.

[regentrude]

I have zero interest in crafts. We had supplies available, the kids could draw, paint and craft when they wanted (which was not very often or for prolonged time), but that does not mean *I* needed to craft. Had they shown any interest in craft activities, we would have sought out outside workshops or classes. We did art appreciation and art history, visited many museums, architectural sites, and exhibitions.

As it turned out, they both preferred reading in a  book to any "hands on" activities.

 

Crafting is not a prerequisite for homeschooling.

Edited November 1, 2017 by regentrude

[Guest]

 

In my non-expert opinion:

 

Coloring, painting, and using scissors can help them develop hand strength that will be useful for learning to write. You don’t need to instruct or require anything specific, just let them have fun.But crafts to help learn content subjects are not necessary. You might enjoy the book “why Don’t Students Like School†(Willingham). He addresses how using crafts for content subjects can sometimes be counterproductive.

[regentrude]

Oh yes, definitely encourage use of scissors and coloring for the fine motor skills!

 

BUT: that does not mean you need to be a crafter. You just need to show them how to use scissors, get them pencils, crayons and markers, lots of paper, and not stifle their creative impulses :)

[carriede]

I CAN be crafty, but Im not driven to craft on a regular basis. And I don't like figuring out what to do with all that stuff either.

 

But my kids love to create. There's construction paper, glue, stickers, markers... not too much that is always accessible to them (well, when the baby is napping anyway). And then when my crafty bone starts itching every 6 months, they get a treat of glitter and googly eyes.

[Hobbes]

I totally second the advice to have supplies available, make sure they know how to use them, and let them create.

 

There is a lot of crafting going on around here at any given time and most often it is not driven by me.

 

ETA: I do like to craft at times - I sew and knit, etc. I've done some SOTW AG crafts. They were fun. But I'm more picky about them each year, mostly because I've found that real retention happens through engaged discussion. It's a rare craft that adds to the learning (some do!). They do colour all the AG pages as they listen. That involves no crafty-ness from me!

 

I like to save my craft energy for teaching knitting, for example.

Edited November 1, 2017 by indigoellen@gmail.com

[73349]

DS has had no interest in crafts, and I really don't either. We don't like making things we're not going to do anything with. (I do crochet wash cloths, etc.).

 

I provided an easel and tempera paint, a Kumon cutting book and scissors (though I think he was 4 before his hands were really big enough for even kids' scissors) and a folding book, a set of pompoms and a strawberry huller and a 14-compartment pill box, later a potholder loom, so plenty of things to play with... but there's just no need to spend your afternoons making cotton-ball snowman decor unless y'all enjoy it and you need something to send Grandma, IMO.

Edited November 1, 2017 by whitehawk

[Jackie]

I don’t reall like crafts. My daughter loves them. It recently clicked with me that now, at age 7, I can just direct her to use Google and YouTube for herself. She now finds her own crafty projects, reads/watches the directions, and takes care of this herself. It’s marvelous!

 

Prior to this, I simply kept her art supplies well stocked. I even gave her some of those artsy-craftsy books meant for parents to use to find crafts for their kids. Sometimes I would buy her a craft kit.

[Vanilla09]

Thank you for your answers. My kids do indeed have access to craft supplies - scissors, glue, colouring pencils, and stickers. They really like colouring pictures, so I always have a stack of these ready, and they will often reach for these while I am napping with the toddler. Scissors and glue they can also use whenever they want, as long as I am in reasonable proximity so as to keep an eye on them. So I am reasonably confident that they are developing these fine-motor skills. And come to think of it, they actually do "real" crafts once in a while with my husband, and some home decoration crafts with me before Easter and Christmas. My son loves helping his daddy with home repairs, and I plan on teaching my daughters to sew when they are older. So yeah, they do crafts, but not school or lesson related crafts.  

 

Thank you for reassuring me that you can successfully homeschool without crafts. Where I live, homeschooling is just starting to gain traction. The homeschooling community is very small and from what I gather, very insistent that anything resembling "school" at home is just as "bad" as brick and mortar school. In other words, if you are not well versed in Montessory pedagogy and if you use workbooks instead of learning through manual activities, you are not really doing any better than the local school. So it's easy to get the feeling that you are doing a poor job if your homeschool is as books, discussions, and memorization focused as ours is...

[Petrichor]

In general, I don't like crafts for little kids. Not until they can do it in a self-directed way. When the crafts are so adult-intensive, IME, they have very little value, education-wise. I don't think it's harmful, just not worth it if parent and student don't value it.

 

By self directed, I mean: 

Student: "Wow, igloos are so cool. I wonder how to build one."

Parent: "What do you need, supply wise, from me?" or "Ok let's google what you need to build that"

Student and maybe parent too: Watches videos or reads instructions on how to build it

Student: Builds it, mostly by himself. Maybe parent helps, if asked to.

Parent: "Wow, cool. Looks nice."

 

 

I always had crayons, paint, glue, scissors, markers, things to glue onto paper, etc available, and we tried a few things (I only remember one craft that we made when he was a preschooler). DS didn't really like to do any kind of coloring/crafty type things.

 

 

 

Edited November 1, 2017 by Dust

[Rosie_0801]

Thank you for reassuring me that you can successfully homeschool without crafts. Where I live, homeschooling is just starting to gain traction. The homeschooling community is very small and from what I gather, very insistent that anything resembling "school" at home is just as "bad" as brick and mortar school. In other words, if you are not well versed in Montessory pedagogy and if you use workbooks instead of learning through manual activities, you are not really doing any better than the local school. So it's easy to get the feeling that you are doing a poor job if your homeschool is as books, discussions, and memorization focused as ours is...

 

Ignore it. All that tells you is what is fashionable and not fashionable to confess to. That's useful for staying out of arguments you can't be bothered with, but It tells you nothing about what anyone is doing when no one is watching.

[OrganicJen]

I have several friends who are occupational therapists who have often discussed how important various fine motor activities are such as coloring, coloring in small detailed areas with colored pencils, finger painting, sculpting with clay or dough, scissor skills, tweezer grabbing skills and so on and so on.  So my personal take on it is that actual crafting and craft activities are not required at all, but it would probably be a good idea to make sure to include some sort of activities to practice the motor skills and sensory input from crafty type activities.  Maybe there are non craft oriented tasks you can give the kiddos that involve those skills, like maybe cutting out articles from a magazine or paper or cutting out coupons etc....maybe get them helping with kitchen tasks that involve pouring, kneading dough etc.  Decorating cookies with frosting and then using tweezers to add small candies might seem more functional and not so crafty?  Not really sure what would work for your family but you probably get my idea.  Basically, just think about what the crafts would require the children to do with their fingers and hands and find other activities that make more sense for your family for them to do instead.  My toddler loves being outdoors so he picks up gravel and rocks and organizes them and places them here and there and builds with them and digs in mud and pulls weeds out, and it may not be a craft but he's developing hand strength and motor skills and getting great sensory input.  

[2_girls_mommy]

Do you have access to co-ops or scouts or art classes at a community center or arts and crafts shop? If you want your kids to learn those things, there are places. 

[Peaceseeker]

Crafts were my nemesis when my kids were young (well that and science projects). I have one who could have cared less and one who adored even the mention of a project. I kept art supplies accessible and made a few half hearted attempts at projects over the years (I distinctly remember a native american turquoise necklace made out of blue kool-aid dyed macaroni). Honestly though, I just mostly read them tons of good books. My daughter would draw or color on her own and is a bit of an artist now and still loves a fun craft project. My lack of love for art projects and science projects has not impeded my kids. Both love science and art despite me somehow, lol..

 

I did feel some mom guilt about it, especially in the early grades. Now I can see that while she would have absolutely loved more projects for school, not having them didn't hurt her creativity or her education. The hours I spent reading aloud paid off in spades though.

[Ellie]

I'm not a crafty person. Not even when we did KONOS--I chose activities that did not require craftiness.

 

You're in good company. :hat:

[fralala]

Walk in the forest (and let the kids romp, stack rocks, pile sticks, shove leaves down each others' shirts, collect pinecones and feathers and other treasures) or do a prepackaged, Mom-directed craft that will take 30+ minutes to plan, gather materials for, and clean up, but only 10 minutes to do? Take the nature walk.

 

The access you provide them to the craft supplies is great, and I do find that my kids are occasionally inspired to create based upon what we're reading, but their crafts will usually be highly original and something that would not really fit in on a school wall on parents' night. Mostly because they often contain soil samples and occasionally come with instructions to water. It's always good to remember that you can't really judge a child's learning or experience by how well you can package it to impress outsiders-- what you are seeing of or hearing about other people's homeschools is often, until they are close friends, simply the package. And what you do with your own kids really doesn't tell us anything about the spirit in which you do it, or how they feel about it, or the general warmth within your home.

[lllll]

nm

Edited November 14, 2017 by _______

[2ndGenHomeschooler]

I’m not a crafty mom. I tried some letter-of-the-week type things with them when they were little but only made it two or three letters in before giving up. I simply don’t enjoy it and I’m not good at it. And honestly, I don’t see the point most of the time. Since my letter-of-the-week attempt at craftiness we’ve done very few crafts, except SOTW coloring pages, as part of school. My only participation in the ones we have done is to purchase supplies and hand off printed instructions to the kids to do on their own.

 

In spite of my lack of crafting or artistic ability I have very creative kids. I keep them stocked with supplies and they do their own thing. I also got them a subscription to creativebug.com and have purchased several how-to type art books and videos for them. They draw, paint, use pastels, color, knit, sew, do paper and cardboard crafts, sculpt with play dough or clay, make jewelry, and all sorts of other things. And they do most of these things better than I can.

[lllll]

nm 

 

Edited November 14, 2017 by _______

[73349]

FWIW, Maria Montessori was not into crafts herself; folks you're coming into contact with may be misunderstanding. She was teaching kids the practical skills they needed (polish your shoes, sew, fill the water cups, make the snack, clean a mirror). No macaroni glued on a paper plate. This was life, not stuff to hang up for Parents' Night.