All three of our kids have been Waldorf kids since kindergarten and a big part of that Waldorf curriculum is “handwork”. Handwork includes: knitting, hand sewing, crocheting and woodwork. This is absolutely, an unofficial rationale of Waldorf handwork pedagogy, but instead what I’ve gleaned from years of parent nights: learning to make things with one’s hands connects the children with confidence to the world around them as they learn how things are made; knitting also encourages hands to “cross midline” which helps prepare the young minds for reading; and, the manual dexterity and pattern recognition fires up all kinds of learning centers and helps to improve handwriting. Once the kids know what to do, the Waldorf handwork classroom usually looks like kids silently knitting or crocheting while the teacher reads them a story.
Two of my three kids LOVE handwork and felt that the biggest downside to this year of travel and road schooling was to miss their regular handwork class for a year. Aside from knitting and hand sewing, I am clueless. The idea of being a year-long handwork teacher, makes me sweaty. How could we pack light and keep this up? In no way can I reproduce their school’s wonderful curriculum, with purposefully chosen projects for each grade.
So we brought three sewing kits that the kids had gotten for Christmas. They were wonderful gifts, but with our busy lives in Boulder the kits had been pushed to the back of the craft cabinet, waiting for a snow day that never came. All the materials were neatly packed away to make three plush toys: an owl, a monster and a frog. At the last minute, I threw them in a suitcase.
During our Sherpa homestay we broke them out on a few rainy afternoons and the kids happily got to work and were proud of their personalized creations. The kids were really excited to give them away. Everywhere we looked in Nepal, there were local kids with few toys to play with. Kai had the easiest time and gave it to a guesthouse owners’ young child on the first day. As far as we could tell, they were very happy with the gift and Kai was happy to see the young child with a “lovie” like the one he slept with each night. Lorna similarly gave hers away a few days later, happy that she had created something that would make another child happy. These kids have so few possessions.
Constructing the “lovies” took three rainy afternoons
Lucy has brought hers all the way to Everest region and back, about six weeks since she created it. It was harder for her to separate with her creation. I didn’t want to force her, but I also know that this is part of the lesson. She has a stuffed bunny who she sleeps with each night and has never been interested in cuddling with her “monster” but it’s also hard to say goodbye to something that she created. I could easily psychologize about reasons why, but her gifting ended up being the sweetest of all.
Lorna giving her creation away…
Back in August, our Nepali family’s grandfather was sick and needed to be helicoptered out of the village. This is the house we stayed in for a week. Grandfather, eight-five years old, was barely able to come to the kitchen and was moaning in pain. How do elderly people survive in villages with no roads and no access to healthcare? Well, they have family that can afford and finagle a helicopter airlift to Kathmandu. (It would have been extremely difficult to carry him to the road and then it would have been an eight-hour jeep ride! This man needs to lay down.)
Helicopter arriving in Thumbuk. Monsoon clouds make it tough to find.
We all waited patiently in Thumbuk for the weather to clear and the helicopter to locate the field by GPS. I stood in the clearing with a red umbrella and we lit a smoky fire. Grandfather, Grandmother and Lhakpa flew with him to Kathmandu where he saw a doctor to relieve his pain and got further testing. Spending time with Grandfather back in Kathmandu a month later, meant the world to the kids. You could tell that Grandfather was feeling better and interacted more with the children. And watching the mountain helicopter rescue will be a clear memory for years.
Lucy gave her lovie to Grandfather just two days before leaving Nepal. Grandfather took it, smiled and then quickly tucked it under his jacket, close to his heart. Another reminder that it’s best to let Lucy lead. And the best reason for us all to learn handwork is to create something of meaning to give. It can mean so much more than a store-bought token of caring.
I didn’t realize how stressed I was to put all three kids unaccompanied on one plane five days ago, until they landed safely into grandparents’ care in San Francisco. I could finally exhale. And with all that nervous energy, we had already packed up Lucy and Kai’s rooms before we got the text that they landed.