What a festival workshop can teach at home

At the 2011 Home Educators’ Summer Festival, the advertised programme put copper beating, storytelling, rockets and weaving within reach of the same camper. Nobody had to turn those activities into separate school subjects before having a go. That is a useful idea to borrow on a wet afternoon, particularly when two children want to make different things and there is only one kitchen table.

Start with a question that can fall down

Try this one. Can a single sheet of scrap paper carry a load across a gap? Set two similar books about a handspan apart on the table. Lay the sheet across them and give your child a handful of identical counters or wooden blocks. Choose objects large enough for the youngest person present. Agree where to put the first one and what will count as a collapse. The paper touching the table is a wonderfully unambiguous result.

Before anyone folds or cuts anything, try the flat sheet. Someone can add blocks while someone else keeps count. If the first block slides off, that belongs in the record too. Draw the arrangement on a spare piece of paper. A child who would rather sketch than balance blocks now has a job that matters to the experiment.

Give the second attempt some room

Put a fresh sheet on the table. One person might fold a ridge down the middle. Another might make a tight concertina. Resist the temptation to demonstrate the strongest design before they try theirs. A narrow fold that makes the bridge twist is an invitation to look underneath and ask which part moved first.

For a fair comparison, keep the gap, paper size and blocks the same. Place each block at the centre as before. A bigger child might notice that two concertinas with different numbers of folds also have different widths. Let them decide whether to measure the width, draw it or simply mention it when they describe the result. There is room for an interesting observation even when the comparison is imperfect.

Make it easy for somebody else to join

At a shared workshop, the next person often arrives halfway through. At home, ask a sibling or another adult to build a bridge using only the sketch. If they fold the paper the other way, see what happens before correcting them. Their interpretation might reveal a detail the first builder understood but never put on the page.

Finish by keeping one design, one result and one question. A photograph of the bridge beside its load can do the work of a paragraph. If your child wants another go tomorrow, leave the books in place or note the gap so they can recreate it. If they are finished, the bridge can become a crossing for toy animals and the experiment has earned its space on the table twice.

The connection with HESFES is the freedom to choose a way in. Read the 2011 festival record for the activities families were offered, or use the workshop finder to choose what to lay out next time.