Potholders!

That’s the Experimental School Subject this week for the boy who turned five yesterday. 

Our core subjects are Religion, Math, and Reading, but I’ve been trying out some different stuff to add to the curriculum.  I figure I’ve got time for one "extra" subject one day a week.  What we’re trying now, I suppose, is "hand work"—some sort of useful or lovely thing made with the hands.

The boy has never been all that interested in art qua art.  He likes to paint, he likes to draw; I have a few paintings he did hung around the house; but it doesn’t really capture his attention.  I wondered if he might like better something that took time to make, something that didn’t have to be finished by suppertime, something he could work on a little bit, put away for a while, and get back out again later. 

So I picked this potholder kit up at Borders last week and presented it to him in the evening after the nearly-2-year-old had gone to sleep.  He was fascinated and we worked on it for more than an hour.  After that he added one or two loops at a time, a little bit every day.  Last night, again after the nearly-2-year-old fell asleep, he put on the last loop.

I showed him how to finish the edge, which is tricky and really must be done all in one go lest the whole thing fall apart.  I was impressed by how much concentration he brought to the task.  He did it mostly himself.  I stood by to listen for wails of "Oh no!" and to rescue his work when a loose loop threatened to unweave the whole thing.  But we finished a lovely, confetti-colored potholder that he is going to send to his Grandma today in the mail.

Midway through the project I bought a second kit for myself.  🙂  Well, it’s kind of fun!