toys

Yesterday in lieu of wood shop, I worked with my lower elementary school class to get bow strings and bridle strings attached to their kites. I reminded them, "these are made of paper, so be careful with them."  Needless to say, after running around the playground with the kites in tow, some repairs will be necessary.

I got in a supply of factory made wheels to show what's available to those schools, parents, and teachers who do not have the means or inclination to make wheels themselves. I am afraid fancy wheels will spoil my kids, making them less loving of the wheels they can make themselves.

If my students see something they like, they want to make it. So I get to play in the shop to come up with ideas that may inspire student work. Box making and toy animals are favorite activities, and so to combine the two seems like a reasonable thing. The picture is a prototype or "model,"  intended to spark student work, and what they do is usually better by their own assessment than my own. Models are also useful in helping the teacher anticipate the tools and materials that students will need in wood shop.

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is creating an exhibit on the impact of Scandinavian design, and contacted me in search of Sloyd models from the history of Educational Sloyd in the US. Unfortunately, neither they nor I know of any actual models remaining from the earlier days. But the exhibit will present some information on Educational Sloyd and they've promised to use some of my published work as a resource in the process.

Toy making was not a thing done in the school at Nääs, but was featured in the elementary schools in Finland and Sweden.

I am reviewing the layout for an article in Woodcraft Magazine about making a box guitar and learned that they need one more photo that I'll take today.

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