The Benefits of Learning How to Wrap Presents!

Zac, age 4

The year Zac was 4, I got him a measuring tape for Christmas and he eagerly measured everything in sight! Measurement is fun!

Measurement is also hard, when you're doing it for real and not for pretend, and it requires a lot of practice. It's the math focus in the Waldorf curriculum for children age 9, and we've been doing many real life measurement projects lately to help them get lots of authentic practice using these skills.

April 2024

Planting a Three Sisters Garden
using Native American Gardening by Michael Caduto & Joseph Bruchac

all my notes are here

May 2024

Building a Cob Oven
using Build Your Own Earth Oven by Kiko Denzer

all my notes are here

March 2025
Planting a Dye Garden
using A Dyer's Garden by Rita Buchanan

Building a Pipe Loom
using Kids Weaving by Sarah Swett

May 2025

Building a House
using Housebuilding for Children by Lester Walker

These projects have been on my bucket list for 20 years! Finally, I set aside the time to do them instead of just looking longingly at the book covers.

Of course, you don't have to do something as ambitious as build a working heddle loom out of PVC pipe to do measurement with your child!

You can simply teach them how to wrap their own Christmas presents!

Stuffing something in a gift bag with a bit of tissue paper is NOT wrapping.
If something is round, or an odd shape, put it in a box and wrap the box! There are a surprising number of skills involved in wrapping a present, and Waldorf Handwork Educators wrote a lovely post about it.

Yes, it takes time. It took two adults (me and Cody) several hours on Tuesday to help 11 children wrap their parent gifts. But it is so worth it!!

Speaking of WHE, I am really excited for their upcoming Feb conference! The theme is Growing Together: The Power of Community Handwork. This includes class-wide and school-wide handwork projects, as well as those that are open to the whole community. Because I teach in a mixed-age environment, I love the idea of creating group projects that work for all ages. Many thanks to WHE for giving me a scholarship so that I can attend!

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