Norse Myths and Knots

As part of our Norse myths block we drew and tied lots of knots. I found a great website of animated knots that takes you step by step through tying various knots. I spent some time determining which would be most useful in everyday life and which of those would lend themselves well to a form drawing lesson.

Once I learned the knot tying by heart, I would teach son how to tie using two different colored bits of yarn. A few days later, after much practice tying and untying, I would draw the knot on the board and have him practice it several times: in the air with his hand, with his feet, with chalk on the driveway, and yes, on paper. I encouraged him to color and shade the knots to emphasize the shadows created by the "over and under" of the yarn. Later in the week he would then do a "formal" form drawing in his forms book. We also drew a page of these knots in his Norse Myths main lesson book, along with a description of when the knot would typically be used. 

And to "tie" it all together (that was too obvious to leave out) we made challah one evening and soft pretzels for some friends. Tying dough is much more difficult than tying bits of yarn, but he persisted and I think they came out quite well. And tasty, too!