Does success or failure largely depend on one's ability to access a situation? To look and listen and have the confidence to figure out what the next step needs to be? More than stockpiling an enormous pile of material, is it about being observant and piecing together what the current climate calls for?
There is something to be said for having the basic skills of listening, observing, and honing/trusting common sense.
Today we did a bit of sewing. In every single mommy/DIY/my-life-is-awesome-and-yours-sucks blogs you've seen those garlands made by zipping along on the sewing machine and throwing down a circle every few inches.
My friend lets her spawn go for it on their own. I like my kids' fingers. I figure that we can increase their independence with each coming holiday. According to my calculations... assuming we do it for Thanksgiving... they might be ready to make a garland solo by... Arbor Day... 2015.
Today we worked as a team. I guided the thread chain and circles while they took turns working the pedal and raising/lowering the needle as needed. I think I said, "Stop. Go. Stop. Go. SLOW DOWN -- SHEESH! Stop. Go." Approximately 5,000 times. But both kids liked it, they are proud of the finished project, and I feel like they really did get better about not putting the pedal all the way to the floor, but rather feeling along for a nice, steady rhythm.
I do know that academics are critical, that we can't revert all the way back to baking bread, sewing, and raising poultry (though we really are hoping to do those things this year)... And yet, I can't help but feel that the further we get from basic tasks that require listening, and common sense, and finding a rhythm, that culminate in a tangible finished project, the further we are getting from our humanity.
So we became more humane today by creating a garland to enhance our bat mobile.
On another note: we switched our piano lessons from after school to during school so as to accommodate a standing play date with one of The Girl's friends. I am very much appreciating how not-segmented our days are. Sure, this was just a moment in our play date:
But it was also a bit o' exercise. It's cool when the kids ask, "So was that kind of gym?" after we do something like this. They are getting that "school" is rather arbitrary. The more cross-over and the less constructed binary opposition (school/free-time; learning/fun) the better.
