Fast, Furious, Fun and Fearfully Fatiguing
• A characteristic of the normal child is he doesn’t act that way very often.
• There are three ways to get something done: do it yourself, employ someone, or forbid your children (students) to do it.
• You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have, for instance.
The first Spring youth class was all of the above. The kids are smart and lively and wonderful. We had a great time, but I am underwhelmed by my ability to both tailor projects that really keep the interest of all the wee ones and to actually get weaving technique across while troubleshooting, wrangling and instructing. My two 12-year-olds are golden; they listen, focus and follow instructions. But my littles really can’t stay on task for very long, and I haven’t succeeded in coming up with projects that engage them, that they can master and that only need 10 or 15 minutes of attention at a time. I am also hampered by two very frustrating facts. The first is that I don’t have a dedicated space, so a lot of my time is schlepping looms around, which also plays havoc with my warps – folding and unfolding the looms, carrying them up and downstairs, etc. The second is that there are about 6 months between sessions, so the lessons I learn during one session are somewhat lost by the time I need to come up with new projects. I am sure that I will slowly learn invaluable lessons if I continue teaching, but I am not sure I want to given the frustrating set up . . . hmmmm . . . maybe I just need to change the age requirements?
