A woodwork project with children led me to revisit Sam’s basket as an Easter project.
Here it is with a bit of upholstery and a few eggs in side.
Making this with dexterous children allowed a few modifications to the original method.
The skewers that we laboriously drilled for and hammered in could be simple nails. But the skewers still had a purpose as pins to secure the handle.
Lately, many projects have been created as presents; the latest note pad was a gift to the boss of the house we work in. It is simply time to make something self indulgent. So, here is our toy aeroplane.Some of my friends will not be able to make sense of what we are making. Others…
There are versions of this on ETSY and Thingiverse and probably many other places. I couldn’t find anywhere that seemed like an original source. My whole family are all getting one. They will love it because it is from my hands.
The greatest gift from a teacher is success, for success fertilises the desire for more success and nourishes self esteem. A student, typically, is the hardest assessor of their own work. So, the creation of work where students feel their own success is the art of teaching. This piece of work began with the donation of…
I Broke a Promise… …but I also made a discovery. When I began doing wood projects among my disabled friends I made some promises to myself. The promises were a personal, but unwritten, statement of policy. I promise to: do work that is engaging because the thing we make is interesting, never to do all…
My friends wouldn’t stop playing with this toy. For me, that is enough evidence to call the project a success. Most of the workers in my group do not interact easily with other people, so their play didn’t consist of shooting each other. They found enormous satisfaction in the challenge of loading a ball and launching it…
The act of making is its own end! My friends may comprehend nothing of the object they have created, but are always richer for having been engaged in the act of making it. With little prior experience of working in disability services, I had no means of judging the progress of a lesson. More experienced people than…