How the Pedagogies like Waldorf and Charlotte Mason Understood the Benefits to Mind, Hearts and Hand in using Handcrafts in Homeschooling

I sat on the porch with my friend as we studied the collections of baskets she had made. Oak baskets. Pine Needle baskets. Simple baskets. More complex baskets. 

“There’s a different between a basket weaver and a basket maker,” she was explaining to me. 

 Before she passed, my mother was a basket weaver. She didn’t collect the supplies – choose the oak trees, strip the bark, and peel the strips. She did weave them though. She came to this a little later in life, and I wanted to learn. She wanted to teach me, but it just didn’t happen before I lost her. 

I did, however, inherit a variety of her baskets, treasures that words do not convey the meaning of each piece to me. I have another friend who’s mother makes cloth napkins for her. She give me her older ones when a new set comes in. After my mother’s passing, I gave her a napkin basket my mom had made. I already had one. My friend, she knew the significance of that gift. 

“Oh, Della. Yes! I will treasure and care for this. Thank you.”

I also inherited all my mother’s basket making supplies. It was one of the few things on the list that I knew I wanted and no one else would need. None of them are basket weavers or makers. I knew I wanted to learn, but now I had no idea who would teach me. 

“A basket weaver simply weaves the basket. A basket maker gathers the oak or pine needles, prepares them to be woven. This oak basket is a simple utilitarian basket. See the gaps in the weaving?”

This is when I found out my friend made baskets. “See how this basket doesn’t have many gaps? It also tapers at the top and has different weaving patterns. This one is a more complex basket.”

Handcrafts are something that are taught in both Charlotte Mason and Waldorf pedagogies. They are taught along side the academics. Though the result is a useful, beautiful item, and there is a sense of accomplishment, there is much more in teaching them than just the resulting useful art. There are many benefits, to adults, but particularly children in creating with your hands. 

Learning a hand craft requires fine motor skills. To be able to hold a pencil and direct in a way that achieves legible words on paper requires muscle and find motor development. Hand crafts are well suited to develop these. Beginning with finger knitting in the early years, and moving into teaching basic knitting in grades 1 and 2. In many Waldorf schools, knitting socks happens in grade 3 and 4.

Much of handwork requires maintained concentration which causes a release of dopamine similar to a mindful or meditative state, but also encourages sustained focus. This prolonged intense focus is useful to other areas of our homeschooling. I often use handcrafts to help with focus when we are doing oral lessons or listening to a book. From the science of learning, we know that this helps with focus and retention of the material. It also increases the time we can be focused which also helps with our lessons. 

If handcrafts are intimidating to you, I find that kits are helpful. They usually come with everything that you need to begin. I’ve recently been working on a braided rug for our bathroom and a willow basket made from grapevine. We have a lot of grape vine here, but not a lot of willow. I don’t know a lot about basket making, but I know where I’m going to learn now.