Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Craft in the Steiner School

My daughter's school had an art show last week, and the Steiner Craft completely stole the show!
The colours and incredible work involved was remarkable.

The children develop their skills year after year, become adept knitters and craftspeople, (check out the Class 4 Fair Isle pillows!!) and are able to make themselves the items they need for their school day.

In Prep they make pom poms and God's eyes;
In Class 1 they sew up and decorate their recorder bags, ready for the day they receive their recorders and start playing every day. They use this bag for years.
They make socks for wearing inside in the cooler months, water bottle carriers, pouches, music bags, pillows, dolls, knitted animals...

Not only do the children develop pride in their work, an appreciation for handmade things, and feeling that they are capable of making what they need and incredible dexterity, their academic work is enhanced through their highly developed sense of order, proportion and number. There have been studies in Scandinavia showing knitting aids children in maths.









2 comments:

Southern Season Exchange said...

Just stunning work So inspiring.

Do you think you or your friends might be interested in Southern Hemisphere Seasonal Exchange - a craft swap with an southern hemisphere focus??

Southern Hemisphere Seasonal Exchange is inspired by the small nature table I have tried to start for my young children to mark the changing of the seasons. However, I have found most material and craft project sourced for inspiration is often based on seasons in the northern hemisphere which is not always relevant to us, as seasonal changes where I live in the Southern Hemisphere can be subtle and quite different from what is happening in the northern hemisphere.

Like my children, I am also learning about the unique seasonal differences in Australia, I am new to crafting and new to keeping a nature table. I would love some inspiration and I am sure other people would as well.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have Seasonal Craft exchange reflective of the seasons of the Southern Hemisphere. I am sure there are many of you like me, who are ready for a crafting challenge, a chance to create your own symbolic item reflective of the current season and a chance to inspire a stranger through your chosen craft.

So here goes, to get the ball rolling and to keep it simple I thought we would start with a ‘Summertime‘ themed craft swap. As it is a busy time of year, to participate you need to include a minimum of one handmade item that you can swap with your allocated partner.

if your interested contact me at southernseasonalexchange@gmail.com and I will send through some details.

Happy crafting

anna said...

Jo, I'm honestly staggered. What absolutely incredibly beautiful things these children have made. I can't take my eyes off your photos! In fact I'm off to have another look now :) Thank you so much for such an inspiring post.