handicrafts = life skills?

[Bocky]

So what are your thoughts about handicrafts as updated to 2019? Yes, we should get really good at sewing? Or, no, it was a vocational/life skills focus and we should update it to ___ (insert your favorite life skills list here)?

[HomeAgain]

I think a lot of the handicrafts are still worth it.  My oldest boy is still glad he learned to sew and knit and has definitely used that in his adult life, but I'm also glad we put an emphasis on other skills each year as well: knot-tying, mosaics, pottery, weaving...I don't want to focus on handicrafts as vocational skills, exactly, but I do want them to be things that round out life, you know?  I have paper sloyd scheduled for next year's first semester, mostly to give a hands on application to geometry, strengthen attention to detail, and create all sorts of fun projects he can use in real life.  I don't expect it to be vocational/life skills at his age, but to develop the path toward that by giving him the underlying skills he will eventually need.

[wendyroo]

I see handicrafts as having two functions:  strengthening fine motor skills and building life skills.

Sometimes an activity fulfills both functions (ie sewing on buttons), but often I choose and teach "handicrafts" that primarily apply to one or the other.  I teach my boys braiding, not because I think they will necessarily use it a lot in their daily lives, but because it requires fine motor coordination between their hands.  I teach finger knitting because it is a great fine motor exercise and it keeps idle hands busy without requiring tools that can easily get lost or dropped.  My oldest has gotten very interested in making paracord bracelets, and I greatly encourage that activity not because I think it is a life skill, but because it requires dexterity, planning, and perseverance.  I even think of playing with Lego or playdough as "handicrafts" in the sense that they are mentally stimulating activities that also strengthen fine motor control.

As for activities that teach valuable/marketable life skills, I am willing to stretch the definition of "handicraft" pretty liberally.  I think of coding as a modern day "handicraft".  I would also put photography into that category - cooking, painting (both the fine arts kind and the paint a room kind), graphic design, making stop-motion movies, child care skills, playing a musical instrument, wilderness survival - pretty much any skill that requires long term practice to develop and perfect and which could, hypothetically, be valuable professionally or in daily life in the future. 

Wendy

[Bluegoat]

I tend to see handcraft in terms of developing respect for the physical world, and competence.  Part of that is about things like manual dexterity.  I think there are a lot of things that could be included, but I would put some boundaries around them.  I likely would not include things that are actually useless, I think it's important that they ultimately have a sense of being a thing that would be used - not some sort of make-work craft destined for the bin.  (Now, it might not turn out at first, that is a different story.)  I'd also not include things that are too abstracted from the physical, as I would consider those to be more like academic work.

For teenagers, in some way that is maybe an ideal time to do some of these things, as they are much more able to deal with manual dexterity or reading directions or pay attention to detail.  There are a lot of options - jewellery making, carving, carpentry, building stone walls, gardening, rug hooking, engine and motor related things, soap-making, cooking.  I'd also include lots off home repair type stuff, how to repair things around the house, regular maintenance like calking, electrical work.  

I'd also suggest that these kinds of skills aren pretty integrated with many of the academic subjects really.  People are always talking about getting kids into things like engineering, but at this level I think learning how to repair a pump is a heck of a lot more revealing than some kind of academic course for high school students.

[Bocky]

On ‎2‎/‎11‎/‎2019 at 3:43 AM, HomeAgain said:

I think a lot of the handicrafts are still worth it.  My oldest boy is still glad he learned to sew and knit and has definitely used that in his adult life, but I'm also glad we put an emphasis on other skills each year as well: knot-tying, mosaics, pottery, weaving...I don't want to focus on handicrafts as vocational skills, exactly, but I do want them to be things that round out life, you know?  I have paper sloyd scheduled for next year's first semester, mostly to give a hands on application to geometry, strengthen attention to detail, and create all sorts of fun projects he can use in real life.  I don't expect it to be vocational/life skills at his age, but to develop the path toward that by giving him the underlying skills he will eventually need.

Paper sloyd sounds like fun. I just got Patty Paper Geometry for this summer. Dd is very interested in crafting, so does a lot on her own outside of school.

Edited February 26, 2019 by Bocky
Removed giant emoji - holy smokes, batman!

[Bocky]

On ‎2‎/‎11‎/‎2019 at 3:45 AM, wendyroo said:

I see handicrafts as having two functions:  strengthening fine motor skills and building life skills.

Sometimes an activity fulfills both functions (ie sewing on buttons), but often I choose and teach "handicrafts" that primarily apply to one or the other.  I teach my boys braiding, not because I think they will necessarily use it a lot in their daily lives, but because it requires fine motor coordination between their hands.  I teach finger knitting because it is a great fine motor exercise and it keeps idle hands busy without requiring tools that can easily get lost or dropped.  My oldest has gotten very interested in making paracord bracelets, and I greatly encourage that activity not because I think it is a life skill, but because it requires dexterity, planning, and perseverance.  I even think of playing with Lego or playdough as "handicrafts" in the sense that they are mentally stimulating activities that also strengthen fine motor control.

As for activities that teach valuable/marketable life skills, I am willing to stretch the definition of "handicraft" pretty liberally.  I think of coding as a modern day "handicraft".  I would also put photography into that category - cooking, painting (both the fine arts kind and the paint a room kind), graphic design, making stop-motion movies, child care skills, playing a musical instrument, wilderness survival - pretty much any skill that requires long term practice to develop and perfect and which could, hypothetically, be valuable professionally or in daily life in the future. 

Wendy

I like your list of updated skills. Dd is very interested in learning digital drawing, which would fit in there, I think.

[Bocky]

On ‎2‎/‎11‎/‎2019 at 9:26 AM, Bluegoat said:

I tend to see handcraft in terms of developing respect for the physical world, and competence.  Part of that is about things like manual dexterity.  I think there are a lot of things that could be included, but I would put some boundaries around them.  I likely would not include things that are actually useless, I think it's important that they ultimately have a sense of being a thing that would be used - not some sort of make-work craft destined for the bin.  (Now, it might not turn out at first, that is a different story.)  I'd also not include things that are too abstracted from the physical, as I would consider those to be more like academic work.

For teenagers, in some way that is maybe an ideal time to do some of these things, as they are much more able to deal with manual dexterity or reading directions or pay attention to detail.  There are a lot of options - jewellery making, carving, carpentry, building stone walls, gardening, rug hooking, engine and motor related things, soap-making, cooking.  I'd also include lots off home repair type stuff, how to repair things around the house, regular maintenance like calking, electrical work.  

I'd also suggest that these kinds of skills aren pretty integrated with many of the academic subjects really.  People are always talking about getting kids into things like engineering, but at this level I think learning how to repair a pump is a heck of a lot more revealing than some kind of academic course for high school students.

I like the bigger picture of developing respect for the physical world, and competence. The cooking dd has done with Guesthollow's Kitchen Chemistry has been very good for developing kitchen skills and a wider appreciation of what our foods are made up of. She made pizza almost completely from scratch last week - making the dough, the sauce, the cheese. Who knew cheesemaking would be so interesting? Household repair is an interesting idea - we could have a go at it together.

I wonder where would you put craft projects that aren't really art but aren't useful either? For example, dd likes to makeover dolls. It's sort of art, but using a variety of crafting techniques; the result is decorative rather than practical.

[Bluegoat]

7 hours ago, Bocky said:

I like the bigger picture of developing respect for the physical world, and competence. The cooking dd has done with Guesthollow's Kitchen Chemistry has been very good for developing kitchen skills and a wider appreciation of what our foods are made up of. She made pizza almost completely from scratch last week - making the dough, the sauce, the cheese. Who knew cheesemaking would be so interesting? Household repair is an interesting idea - we could have a go at it together.

I wonder where would you put craft projects that aren't really art but aren't useful either? For example, dd likes to makeover dolls. It's sort of art, but using a variety of crafting techniques; the result is decorative rather than practical.

 

I would probably call this sort of thing something like the "decorative arts".  So not fine arts, so much, but toward making the environment around you more appealing.

It's fairly common for artists to do fine art but also "craft".  So for example, I used to know a fellow who was a scrimshaw artist, whose work generally needed to be done on old ivory.  Ivory is expensive and not that easy to fine, so if he got a nice large piece - often a walrus tusk, he spent quite a lot of time making an original piece.  If you bought one, it was completely unique and also very expensive.

He also used to do quite a few smaller pieces, usually on old piano keys which he mounted in a nice frame.  These are smaller and cheaper, and the pictures while not identical, were more alike - there were a few general themes he would use for these though he varied them to keep it interesting for himself.  You could buy one of these for a much lower price, but he made and sold a lot more of them and they accounted for more of his income.

He made a pretty standard differentiation between these things - the former group was fine art, and the latter craft. I think they are both very valid.  The only kinds of "craft" I don't really like are the ones people know are essentially meant to be thrown away, they are just busywork.