Chatter and Chitter lead the Maker Costume Parade
This is the second year the girls and I have been part of The Learning Center’s Maker Faire. Here’s how the school explains it’s annual Maker Faire:
“At TLC! we have always emphasized learning by doing. Our E-STEAM curriculum runs on the power of student-driven creations. We know that the act of making, tinkering, fiddling, and fixing sparks a deep curiosity in all of us.
As we prepare our students to enter a 21st Century job market, we know that we must now expose them to the technology and innovation skills they will use in the future. We want to prepare our students to be life-long MAKERS as well as life-long learners. The act of making contributes to community and drives the entrepreneurial spirit that leads to positive change in our world.”
Over 70 makers participated in the Maker Faire this year. Participants showcased their expertise with food, blacksmithing, bonsai gardening, jewelry, weaving, crotchet, game programming, painting, genealogy, history and lore, music, gardening, woodworking, pvc pipe bows, handmade boats, and a whole lot more!
We are all makers in some way, shape, or form. I love that TLC! is making such a great effort to foster and encourage the makers in their school family and the community at large.
Tipper
Appalachia Through My Eyes – A series of photographs from my life in Southern Appalachia.
What a wonderful idea and name! Maker’s Faire. I love it. I learned to do a lot of things as a kid, and I have continued in life continuing to make things. I will now call myself a maker rather than a crafter. I like the creativeness of it all so much better because that is what we do in life. I learn so much from you Tipper, and from your family. Thank you.
Oops! I misspelled ***** it should have been ******.
If the school ever needs someone to teach piddling have them call me. I can show the kids how to take a pocket knife and a ordinary baseball bat and in a matter of days turn it into a toothpick. I used to piddle as a profession but gave it up when I retired. I applied for a position on the dead***** bench but got turned down because I can’t tell a good lie and don’t know how to chew tobacco.
Tipper,
I agree with everybody’s comment, the Maker’s Fair is a good thing. Kids need to be able to think for themselves more. It helps prepare them for life. …Ken
How wonderful! I love the idea of a Maker’s Faire instead of Craft Fair. It highlights the creator more than the craft.
Hmmmmmm sounds as if ‘maker’ is very nearly a synonym for ‘craftsman’ or ‘craftsperson’.
I think I posted this before sometime but if my Dad wanted something we couldn’t afford, his solution was to make it. He made a camping trailer starting from an old Mercury car axle and used it for years before selling it. I think that ‘figuring out a way’ is still alive and well among country folks in part because it is a practical, physical necessity in routine problems that crop up and in part because of saving money. I think it is much better to be a maker than a taker.
what a great thing for children at TLC. I was raised in a Maker family.
There was a day when I never gave a gift I did not make.
I learned to knit, crochet, weaving, rug making and macrame at my grandmother’s knee.
After mastering the basics I was told to create my own design. Sometimes they were pretty bad but it did teach me to be my own person. It was amazing what you could make out of old shirts and string.
I thought when I retired I would get back to making again but it seems that was a dream only. Too busy being retired.
In all ways, we need more makers. Makers make better consumers. Let’s face it, none of us would be here if our people weren’t makers.
What a great idea.
I went to the Maker Faire last year. It’s really an astonishing event. There was even a race car there. I love the idea that that school is growing new makers and I love that everybody at your house is a maker!