Handwork Teacher Training - Ideas for Final Project

A quick post to serve as a place for me to brainstorm...

I am halfway through my Waldorf Handwork Teacher Training, the Applied Arts Program Cycle 11 at the Fiber Craft Studio at Sunbridge Institute. I'm extremely proud to be part of this well-established and very highly regarded program! It is a four year part-time residential program. The first year you study the Handwork for grades 1 & 2, the second year grades 3 & 4, the third year grades 5 & 6, and the fourth year grades 7 & 8. I will graduate in the Summer of 2023. Midway through the program you're supposed to start thinking about your Final Project. It should be something in Handwork that you've never tackled before (our training also includes Woodworking and Clay, since Handwork teachers are sometimes called upon to teach those things as well). I have SO MANY ideas running through my head! I think the best thing to do is to just give myself a place to write them down (this post) and then see over time what really speaks to me.

Here goes:

making silk marionettes (a possible 7th grade project... 7th grade is a year in Waldorf Handwork where nothing is settled as far as a firm recommendation, and so you always hear teachers asking one another, "what do you do in 7th grade?")

charcoal burning in lengths of copper pipe (grade 7 Chemistry)

caning chairs (I've always wanted to learn this too, and it would allow me to repair all of my vintage chairs!)

basket weaving

weaving a wattle fence

soapstone carving

bookbinding

wet felted slippers

growing cotton and/or flax in my yard, taking the plant from seed to usable fiber and then making something with it (the 3rd grade curriculum)

building a bread oven out of cob (this would also be grade 3 of course)

macramé (another possibility for 7th grade, with the Age of Exploration)

net tying (I have always wanted to learn this and it goes with Norse Mythology in 4th grade)

Knot Tying Curriculum for Public School Children

I also want to learn much more about how to explain tying different knots to children. I am director of Summer Camps at the local Environmental Center and last year we had a terrible time trying to teach the children how to tie any knots at all. Many of them cannot even tie their shoes at age 9. I'd love to figure out a knot tying curriculum so that those children can be successful.

This is something that would be practical and useful for me right away, since we have made this as a camp goal this summer. Each week I would like the children to master one knot. It would be nice to take the time to sit down and figure out what those would be for each age group, how to explain and demonstrate them, and to master them myself.

For anyone who would like to respond to this question, if you could learn how to do anything in the Practical Arts, what skill would you like to learn?

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