Emma Maruska – Finger Knitting

Emma Maruska with students from Tucson Waldorf School will be demonstrating and teaching finger knitting and other knitted/crocheted items from the Waldorf/European tradition.

For over thirty years Tucson Waldorf School (TWS) has served parents and children from their newborn years through Grade 8 with an education that fosters academic engagement and joy in learning. TWS offers an outstanding classical education, presented with care and an ethic of beauty, while at the same time nurturing family life, and developing social and environmental awareness. Everything done at Tucson Waldorf School is in support of the wonderful children who learn and thrive here.

Practical Arts is in integral aspect of the TWS curriculum. Knitting is an example of this curriculum, which is introduced in early childhood and carries through the grades.

Knitting itself involves “crossing the midline” – where the hands move into the opposite spheres of the body – crucial for developing dominant hand skills in pre literacy and numeracy. Knitting trains powers of attention and perseverance and introduces rhythmic hand motions which promote a pliant and sensitive brain. The inevitable mistakes that occur when knitting engage creative thinking and problem solving, and knitting can serve as an introduction to mathematical concepts through counting of stitches and rows, and when making more three dimensional items. A completed knitting project promotes a feeling of achievement and that ‘I can.’