n week

Yesterday at the Clear Spring School we made great progress in making bluebird houses for the Northwest Arkansas Master Naturalists to install at the Lake Leatherwood City Park. What we still have left on the 22 bird houses will be to add roofs and doors.

With the Kindergarten class I decided to have them make note holders for their Moms. The note holders are simple. A small board is held in the vise while a base is nailed on. Then a clothes pin is attached using hot melt glue. Personalized decoration with markers is an important part of the process. A note holder was the perfect project for "N" week in which the students were learning words that start with the letter "N."

The kids made notes to their Moms to be held in their note holders.

The kids told me that they want to make tiny cars next week.

Make, fix and create.

Kindergarten in the college years.

I received a large pdf file from John Reynolds at Miami University showing student architectural designs based on Froebel blocks serving as the design prompt. The students arranged blocks and made block sets, then followed the path that the earlier steps provided in designing a building.

The point is that (as described in the theory of Educational Sloyd) we work best from the concrete toward the abstract. The blocks, being concrete forms, empower abstract thinking that has greater relevance to real life.

At the Clear Spring School, my students are working on bird houses for the Northwest Arkansas Master Naturalists, and I am working on supersized gift number 4 blocks for the school playground. The gift number 3 cubes still receive student attention even though they were introduced at the beginning of the school year. The addition of number 4 blocks will allow a much larger cube to be formed and other forms to be created. and will reinvigorate student interest.

Educational Sloyd was first conceived as a means to extend Kindergarten style learning through play into the upper grades. John Reynold's investigation of the use of Froebel blocks at the university level show that even college kids benefit from Kindergarten style learning.

Make, fix and create.

Box making at ESSA

I finished a two day introduction to box making at the Eureka Springs School and have been back at work teaching at the Clear Spring School joined by a parent volunteer. On Monday my first through 4th grade students made rocket ships for their study of space.

Yesterday I picked up materials for making more giant sized outdoor Froebel blocks and for my students to make 24 bluebird houses for the Northwest Arkansas Master Naturalists to install at our Lake Leatherwood City Park.

Make, fix, and create... Assist others in learning lifewise.

"M week" part II

Yesterday my Kindergarten students made marble mazes in celebration of M week in which they are studying words that start with the letter and sound M. Maze and marble. are among many The kids loved the project and wondered if they'd be allowed to take them home. Of course. That's one of the important points of manual arts training. The work that goes home is better than grades at showing proficiency and understanding.At the Clear Spring School,  coloring, decorating and personalizing is an important part of the process, one that was overlooked in the early days of Educational Sloyd but that excites the kids of today.

Who needs a report card when kids have done very real things, that capture their interests and imaginations and demonstrate their growth.

I expect a similar experience today as I embark on a two day box making class for adults. Adults and children are not much different when it comes to learning. We learn best through guided play. We are pulled forward to learn new things because our imaginations have become captive in our explorations of self. The very odd thing is that we've public school's that ignore what we all know about the process of learning.

Make, fix and create. Assist others in learning likewise.

"M week"

Today in the wood shop at the Clear Spring School, I decided that our lesson for Kindergarten students would be making marble mazes because they are studying the letter "M."

This is my first day back at teaching, so I woke up in the middle of the night thinking through what I would do with my fifth and sixth grade students. Because they are studying caves, I explained that they would be able to make marble mazes in which the marble would have to pass through the maze by feel alone.

They loved the idea so much that next week they want to make multi-level mazes in which they not only have to move the marble around a track built inside, but they will also have to feel its way through the game level by level. That will add difficulty and complexity to a simple game.

I will have photos of the Kindergarten marble mazes in tomorrow's post. Unlike the 5th and 6th grade marble mazes, the Kindergarten mazes will be open on the top rather than sealed.

Some have wondered where the ideas for the Wisdom of the Hands projects come from. The teachers play a big part in the process. The students, also. It is a delight for a teacher to see his or her students deeply engaged, and every student this morning was just that.

Tomorrow I have a two day box making class at the Eureka Springs School of the Arts.

Make, fix, create and assist others in learning likewise.

coming attractions.

On Friday I resume classes  at the Clear Spring School. The students are excited that I'll be back.

On Saturday I start a two day class in box making at ESSA. I have 9 students signed up, and have hopes that the possibility of snow does not interfere.

On January 26 the Stateline Woodturners (a chapter of the AAW from Southwest Missouri and Northwest Arkansas) will make "Beads of Courage" boxes in the ESSA wood shop as a service project for children who are facing difficult medical treatment. http://www.beadsofcourage.org/pages/woodturners.html  If you are interested in learning more about the Stateline Woodturners you can contact them through this link:http://www.statelinewoodturners.com

I contacted a friend, George Lundeen, internationally known sculptor, to congratulate him on a project he had recently completed, building larger than life sized "stations of the cross." It was a monumental project involving a number of sculptors. We reminisced about our college days, with him recalling that he learned very little from his classes and a whole lot more through his relationships with friends. Is that nearly always the case?

The turned box shown is a "beads of courage" box.

Make, fix and create. Assist others in learning life wise.

Does manual labor boost happiness?

A friend sent a link to an article describing the effects of manual agency on the chemistry of the brain.  The title of the piece "Does Manual Labor Boost Happiness" may be misleading. "Manual labor" is thought to be that thing that those in search of ease try their damnedest to avoid. Digging ditches might come to mind. And yet to feel fully human requires the display of manual agency. https://bigthink.com/surprising-science/could-working-with-your-hands-boost-happiness The article mentions Kelly Lambert, a researcher I've mentioned many times before in this blog, and perhaps it will help readers to understand that I really do know what I'm talking about.

• Working with your hands affects brain chemistry in a positive way. 
• Automation technologies can strip away a sense of agency and meaning in our lives. 
• Using your hands connects you with your environment in a way that most technologies cannot.

The article also mentions Matthew Crawford, about whom I've written many times before and who used a 2006 quote from this blog as the launch of chapter one of his best selling book, "Shop Class as Soulcraft. "

Of course, how we feel as human beings and how we feel about ourselves as human beings are only part sof what's related to the agency of the hands.

• We also are smarter when the hands are engaged. 
• We are more truthful and responsive to the needs of others. 
• We are less egotistical, more compassionate, and loving, when the hands are engaged. 

The search for happiness may not require us to become manual laborers and dig ditches for a change. We can serve in a multitude of other intelligent ways. Engaging the hands as a means to restore body and soul needs not lower us on a social scale. Even doing the basic chores of life can have restorative effects.

Make, fix and create... encourage others to learn and love lifewise.