paper sloyd

Paper Sloyd was written by Ednah Anne Rich and published in 1912.  I just finished scanning it, arranging it and uploading it so that you can download, enjoy and make use of in the stay at home education of kids. I added my own article about paper Sloyd from Woodwork Magazine published a number of years ago as I was reintroducing Sloyd to American woodworkers. https://www.dropbox.com/s/9htq977pigw8wbc/papersloyd.pdf?dl=0

So why is this important now? Kids are stuck at home and parents are wondering what to do about it. Kids need to continue learning and we know that hands-on is better by far than being stuck at a computer all day. Academic third-party learning and hands-on discovery-based learning each refresh and nourish the other.

Paper Sloyd was a means to prepare very young students for later lessons in woodworking. It involves accurate measuring, and the ability to follow instructions. Unlike origami, the outcome instead of being merely decorative is useful. The projects are arranged to take advantage of how kids learn, moving from the known to the unknown, from the easy to more difficult, from the simple to the complex and from the concrete to the abstract. It also engages and develops spatial visualization, that will later be important in finding success in math. But just because the book shows very young children at work, does not mean that older children and adults would not learn from it and enjoy it.

The tools of paper Sloyd are scissors and ruler, both of which should be available in most homes (at least I hope so!) Only paper is required to make the models from the book which offers three years of paper folding lessons. I prefer to use card stock for most of the projects, to make them more lasting, but lighter paper can be used.

Even if you never use this book, the way projects are laid out is instructive as it illustrates the way that lessons were laid out in woodworking Sloyd. When you've learned the lessons from one project, what you've learned will make the next just a bit easier and the instructions just a bit more clear as you build skills in a sequential and natural manner.

A student favorite from the book is making paper pinwheels as shown.

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