The Princess trying her hand at crochet
Showing posts with label teaching. Show all posts
Showing posts with label teaching. Show all posts
Sunday, 1 July 2012
Thursday, 10 June 2010
Saturday, 29 May 2010
Embroidery Class 4
I don't usually show faces on this blog but I thought this photo is general enough not to compromise any body's privacy.
Here's our embroidery class in full swing. We use the indoor play area of the foundation classes for our lesson, hence all the toy boxes in the background. The kids are very comfortable and sit and chat while they're working. They have settled into their needlework routine and are much more relaxed now than a few weeks ago.
I have adapted the lesson plan to suit their working speed and skill level. In the beginning I planned to introduce a new stitch every week but I soon realised that it would not be possible. The lesson time is just to short to get familiar with a stitch every week.
Now I have a sample of all the different stitches and every child decides when they are ready for a new stitch. They then choose the one they would like to learn and I teach it to them individually. This works a lot better than trying to get them all to do the same thing at the same time.
As you can see some children like to stick to one stitch and others are more confident and try a wider variety of stitches. I am happy with that. Karen, one of the mothers, volunteered to assist me, for which I am very grateful! She spends most of her time threading needles and sorting out knots and tangles.
We have three lessons left before end of term. Hopefully most of the butterflies and dragons will be finished by then. We plan to have a small exhibition in the school foyer in the last week to show of every body's handy work.
When I planned this course my main aim was to introduce embroidery to the young ones and to teach them to love it. I am not too concerned about perfect stitches and neat designs at this stage. If at the end of this course they decide they like doing embroidery and want to do it again (and again), I would have reached my goal. It is much easier to teach skill to someone who has the love than the other way around...
Here's our embroidery class in full swing. We use the indoor play area of the foundation classes for our lesson, hence all the toy boxes in the background. The kids are very comfortable and sit and chat while they're working. They have settled into their needlework routine and are much more relaxed now than a few weeks ago.
I have adapted the lesson plan to suit their working speed and skill level. In the beginning I planned to introduce a new stitch every week but I soon realised that it would not be possible. The lesson time is just to short to get familiar with a stitch every week.
Now I have a sample of all the different stitches and every child decides when they are ready for a new stitch. They then choose the one they would like to learn and I teach it to them individually. This works a lot better than trying to get them all to do the same thing at the same time.
As you can see some children like to stick to one stitch and others are more confident and try a wider variety of stitches. I am happy with that. Karen, one of the mothers, volunteered to assist me, for which I am very grateful! She spends most of her time threading needles and sorting out knots and tangles.
We have three lessons left before end of term. Hopefully most of the butterflies and dragons will be finished by then. We plan to have a small exhibition in the school foyer in the last week to show of every body's handy work.
When I planned this course my main aim was to introduce embroidery to the young ones and to teach them to love it. I am not too concerned about perfect stitches and neat designs at this stage. If at the end of this course they decide they like doing embroidery and want to do it again (and again), I would have reached my goal. It is much easier to teach skill to someone who has the love than the other way around...
Sunday, 16 May 2010
Tuesday, 11 May 2010
Embroidery Class 2
We had the second class last Wednesday and I was relieved and excited to see all 12 students back with great enthusiasm! The enthusiasm was such that they didn't want to stop to learn a new stitch! The running stitch had them on a roll and they wanted to continue...
I spent the most part of the lesson trouble-shooting and sorting out problems as they arose. We learned how to end-off the floss and start a new one. We also learned to stop in time, before the last bit is to short to end-off properly and also not to let the last bit of double floss close to the needle get 'worked in'!
As you can see from these 3 examples, every child work at a different pace and with a different touch. Which is great, as the last thing I want is for everbody's work to look the same.
Tomorrow I am going to teach them to do the chain-stitch. I've shown them examples last week and some of the kids want to use it for filling-in and some for lines. And one or two of them want to make daisies on the wings... Exciting!
I took these photos after class last week, as the lesson itself is just to busy to take photos. Hopefully I will get a few action shots tomorrow.
I spent the most part of the lesson trouble-shooting and sorting out problems as they arose. We learned how to end-off the floss and start a new one. We also learned to stop in time, before the last bit is to short to end-off properly and also not to let the last bit of double floss close to the needle get 'worked in'!
As you can see from these 3 examples, every child work at a different pace and with a different touch. Which is great, as the last thing I want is for everbody's work to look the same.
Tomorrow I am going to teach them to do the chain-stitch. I've shown them examples last week and some of the kids want to use it for filling-in and some for lines. And one or two of them want to make daisies on the wings... Exciting!
I took these photos after class last week, as the lesson itself is just to busy to take photos. Hopefully I will get a few action shots tomorrow.
Friday, 30 April 2010
Embroidery Class 1
Remember I told you about the Embroidery classes I planned to do at my kids school? Well, I had the first lesson this past Wednesday.
I have 12 kids in the class - 10 girls and 2 boys. For the girls I made a butterfly design and for the boys a dragon design. One of the girls opted for the dragon too - fortunately I had an extra one.
None of the girls has done any embroidery before. Surprisingly both boys had some experience!
The classes are only 45 minutes and not an hour as I thought before, and boy, does that 45 minutes fly by!
I gave them a kit containing the design on a piece of linen, with a muslin backing, already framed in the hoop (don't you just love the brightly coloured hoops?), 2 needles and 10 different colours of pre-cut floss.
We started out by me showing them how to split the floss and thread the needle. That took some time...
Then I let them practice to push the needle through the fabric from both the front and the back. It takes some practice to aim the needle at a specific place if you can't see your hand behind the fabric.
Eventually we started with a running stitch... and then the time was up!
I sent the kit home with them to practice a little and to finish the line they started in class. Next week we will hopefully do some back stitching...
I have 12 kids in the class - 10 girls and 2 boys. For the girls I made a butterfly design and for the boys a dragon design. One of the girls opted for the dragon too - fortunately I had an extra one.
None of the girls has done any embroidery before. Surprisingly both boys had some experience!
The classes are only 45 minutes and not an hour as I thought before, and boy, does that 45 minutes fly by!
I gave them a kit containing the design on a piece of linen, with a muslin backing, already framed in the hoop (don't you just love the brightly coloured hoops?), 2 needles and 10 different colours of pre-cut floss.
We started out by me showing them how to split the floss and thread the needle. That took some time...
Then I let them practice to push the needle through the fabric from both the front and the back. It takes some practice to aim the needle at a specific place if you can't see your hand behind the fabric.
Eventually we started with a running stitch... and then the time was up!
I sent the kit home with them to practice a little and to finish the line they started in class. Next week we will hopefully do some back stitching...
Sunday, 14 March 2010
Left handed embroidery lessons
One of the things I have never done before is to teach embroidery to someone else. I am a mainly self-taught embroiderer and if I can't find a method or tutorial in a book or the internet, I just figure it out for myself.
I have now taken the big step to offer a Beginners Embroidery Class at my children's school. The class will start after the Spring break in April and will be aimed at children aged 9-11. The course will run for 10 weeks, with a 1-hour lesson once a week. I have limited the class size to 12 kids, but I am thinking about inviting their mothers to join us too.
I am now in the process of designing my class program, and I need some advice from all you creative people out there, please! I was thinking about giving each child a simple butterfly design and then teach them one (or maybe two, if it is simple) stitches per lesson. They can do a few practice runs and once they get the hang of it, do it on the design, filling in the butterfly as the weeks go by.
As I was browsing the web the last few days, looking for some guidance I found this post on Needle 'n Thread. Mary uses the butterfly design to practice on first and then do the 'final run' on a sampler. Should I do it this way too? It means that every child would have two hoops, one with the butterfly pattern and one with the sampler...
I was also thinking of providing a variety of pre-cut floss ready for the kids to choose their own colour scheme in stead of providing a pre-packed kit. It gives them a little bit more freedom and creativity. Should I use normal DMC (or similar) floss with 6 strands or should I use a cotton perle that won't split? I was thinking of using the stranded floss, firstly because I have a good stash and secondly because I thought it would be good for the kids to know how to split the strands. They will also see how a variety of thicknessess will influence the final design. Now I think it might be to complicated for them to start with and they might be put off when they tangle the loose strands... What do you think?
Another issue where I need some input is this: I am left-handed. I have never felt handicapped by it and I can embroider, crochet and knit without any problems. I just wonder if I won't confuse the kids if I work 'the other way round' from them. (I assume they will be mostly right-handed.) My mother and grandmother taught me to do needlework by using the mirror-method. That is the teacher and pupil sit facing each other and the pupil copying everything the teacher do in a mirror image. Are you a left-handed teacher, or were you taught by a left-handed person? How did you do it?
My main goal for these lessons is to teach the children to love needlework. I want them to understand that to be able to embroider is to open a whole new world of creativity and fun. It is something you can do anywhere and at any age. Most life-long embroiders will tell you that they learned the craft at around this age of 9 to 11, and that even thought they might have neglected it during their teenage/young adult years they never forgot the pleasure it gave them, and eventually returned to the craft.
So, even though it will be a challenge and achievement for me to teach, I would feel very happy if I can succeed in passing on the love of the craft and not just the skill to a few children.
(All photos in this post comes from either Mr X-Stitch or FeelingStitchy. Unfortunately I do not know the names of the individual artists)
I have now taken the big step to offer a Beginners Embroidery Class at my children's school. The class will start after the Spring break in April and will be aimed at children aged 9-11. The course will run for 10 weeks, with a 1-hour lesson once a week. I have limited the class size to 12 kids, but I am thinking about inviting their mothers to join us too.
I am now in the process of designing my class program, and I need some advice from all you creative people out there, please! I was thinking about giving each child a simple butterfly design and then teach them one (or maybe two, if it is simple) stitches per lesson. They can do a few practice runs and once they get the hang of it, do it on the design, filling in the butterfly as the weeks go by.
As I was browsing the web the last few days, looking for some guidance I found this post on Needle 'n Thread. Mary uses the butterfly design to practice on first and then do the 'final run' on a sampler. Should I do it this way too? It means that every child would have two hoops, one with the butterfly pattern and one with the sampler...
I was also thinking of providing a variety of pre-cut floss ready for the kids to choose their own colour scheme in stead of providing a pre-packed kit. It gives them a little bit more freedom and creativity. Should I use normal DMC (or similar) floss with 6 strands or should I use a cotton perle that won't split? I was thinking of using the stranded floss, firstly because I have a good stash and secondly because I thought it would be good for the kids to know how to split the strands. They will also see how a variety of thicknessess will influence the final design. Now I think it might be to complicated for them to start with and they might be put off when they tangle the loose strands... What do you think?
Another issue where I need some input is this: I am left-handed. I have never felt handicapped by it and I can embroider, crochet and knit without any problems. I just wonder if I won't confuse the kids if I work 'the other way round' from them. (I assume they will be mostly right-handed.) My mother and grandmother taught me to do needlework by using the mirror-method. That is the teacher and pupil sit facing each other and the pupil copying everything the teacher do in a mirror image. Are you a left-handed teacher, or were you taught by a left-handed person? How did you do it?
My main goal for these lessons is to teach the children to love needlework. I want them to understand that to be able to embroider is to open a whole new world of creativity and fun. It is something you can do anywhere and at any age. Most life-long embroiders will tell you that they learned the craft at around this age of 9 to 11, and that even thought they might have neglected it during their teenage/young adult years they never forgot the pleasure it gave them, and eventually returned to the craft.
So, even though it will be a challenge and achievement for me to teach, I would feel very happy if I can succeed in passing on the love of the craft and not just the skill to a few children.
(All photos in this post comes from either Mr X-Stitch or FeelingStitchy. Unfortunately I do not know the names of the individual artists)
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