A Teachers HeART

For the past week I've been mulling over the idea of holding personal sewing lessons and charging for my services. Since I have now learned to write a lesson plan all I've been doing is writing it out and verifying the lesson.
I've been trying the lesson plan out on my daughter and so far I've realized my lesson plan had to be modified for her specific age group. Most kids her age have to work on fine motor skills, and so teaching a child like her how to draw or be steady while they sew is a big deal.
Another thing I realized is that giving personal sewing lessons would vary based on knowledge of the topic. Some people might be absolute beginners, others intermediate and so on and so forth. I'd have to give lessons based on where someone is which means I'd first have to ask a few questions to my clients such as:

1. Do you own a sewing machine?
2. Do you know the parts of the sewing machine?
3. What are your sewing goals?  

Also asking how old each client is might help me understand whether they need help cutting, and using a needle. Just having a general idea of where a client is may help me in my process. I feel like I've found my voice in teaching, and I've learned to be the person that I am in all of that. Learning to create a lesson plan actually helped a lot. It showed me how to break down my lesson into reasonable steps, but once again what I have to do is tell my client that the lesson plan that I create is subject to change due to individual needs.

Another thing that I noticed is that I have so much to offer, and I love to teach. It took me so long to admit this. I was speaking to someone about how long it took me to admit that I love to teach, and she assumed it had something to do with a bad experience I may have had. No, honestly I come from a line of teachers and preachers on both sides of my family. It's more so that I'm really overwhelmed by the idea that I have to be exactly like them. They are all teachers and they have somehow found their niches. I explained that I don't want to be like them. If I am a teacher at all, I'd love to do it my way. I'm really good at art and the performing arts, so I simply want to teach what I am good at. My family members are excellent with teaching academics like spanish, and full reading skills, math and science. Some of them retired twice, and some of them are just so good at what they do that they give tutoring on the side. That isn't my style though, and what I really desire is to just be myself in teaching. I honestly crumble under the pressure of feeling like I'm forced to teach like someone else, you may even take away my desire to teach if you force it on me. 

Here are a few things that I did with my daughter. In lesson 1 we went over sewing on a piece of fabric. We also tried to sew on lines on paper

To see a video of Anya learning to sew on the lines click on the link from Lesson 1

To see a video of Anya learning speed control click on the link from Lesson 2

Since Anya is only 6 I had to focus more on her fine motor skills in order for her to cut, and sew exactly on the lines. There were certain things I realized needed a bit more focus than other lessons. Either way my outcome will be to learn to sew a pillow. The benefit of Anya being my daughter is that she can learn all the other lessons such as creating gathers, and welt pockets, as well as flat felled seams for free, and on our time. I've also started her resume already so in 20 years she's going to have an exceptional amount of experience and training under her belt. A degree would simply be a cherry on top of a beautiful masterpiece! Sometimes you gotta start early.

While social media joke about having 10 years of experience by the time you are 22, I know exactly how that can be realistic. As a parent we sign our children up for all types of things like dance, learning to play an instrument, sports and so on. Simply sticking to the program instead of telling them when they're 18 that those are childhood dreams and they have to "grow up" by getting a job that doesn't even have their interests is ridiculous. In our own way we teach our children to be inconsistent, and they lack the ability to market themselves because of it. Whether they work for an employer or independently not being challenged to be the best at what you can do creates adults with sorry work ethic.  

If  you are interested in learning to sew please don't hesitate to download my Inigo Card! It's easy to download straight into your contacts. My Inigo Card has all the information for my social media, cell phone number you name it. Feel free to call or email me about lessons, and we can come up with a plan together to accomplish YOUR sewing goals, and write up your children's resume to give them a head start.

It's been fun telling you some of the cool things I've done with my daughter. I'm doing more than sewing lessons, I'll be creating some other classes as well which include croqui design, and jewelry making as well. It's still in the works but at least by the end of March I intend on having a full lesson  plan for all of the classes, with a week by week breakdown of what will be taught. 

Until next time have a great day new creatures!