occupation

Sorry, I am occupied. The difference between a Froebel gift and an occupation was that a gift was unchangeable in form. It could come out of the box in which it was presented, and then after play and learning from it, be reassembled and returned to the box little worse for wear. An occupation involved making real changes in materials. For example, gift number 10 as described in the Paradise of Childhood was "material" for drawing vertical, horizontal and oblique lines on graph paper. Gifts  number 11 and 12 involved perforating holes in patterns and doing simple embroidery work. Gift number 13 was the "material for cutting paper and mounting pieces to produce figures and forms." Many followers of Friedrich Froebel made little distinction between the gifts and occupations, but the distinction is useful when it comes to understanding the intent. Froebel's purpose was to develop the child's natural inclination toward "self activity" through which the child became a self actualized participant in life.

When the child moves beyond play blocks, there is no reason that creativity should stop. And each of us in our daily "occupations" would benefit from being more creatively occupied. Part of the fulfillment of that comes from having the necessary materials with which to create...

Today in the school woodshop, my students will be working on their physics demonstration projects. Matthew and Hawk are making a small trebuchet, and Ozric and Stephen are making a ballista.

I will be turning one more satellite ring box that I'll alter by making scroll saw cuts after turning. In my home shop I am planning to make small band sawn boxes from spalted maple and myrtle burl. The spalted maple shown above is a piece I found at roadside. Material from which to create...

Make, fix and create...