Coffeegirl

Hello everyone! As you may know from other threads in which I have posted, I'm pretty much a beginnner when it comes to origami.

I have done my fair share of arts designed for kids and they have been a tremendous help in learning. I'm currently trying to sway from creating models for kids and trying something more advanced (although still beginner-level). I'm still learning and my knowledge about origami is pretty much limited, but I feel like I'm moving forward. Next week, I'm going to a family meeting - basically all the uncles and my sisters will be there and they all have kids. As long as I'm sure, that I probably won't be able to get anyone from my family into origami, I thought of introducing this art for kids, they are all pretty small, ranging from 5 to 11 years old.

That's why, in order to introduce them to Origami properly I'm looking for some good easy models ideas. Well, most I have done that were aimed for kids was pretty easy and helped me learn pretty quickly, but still, I'm practicing origami a bit already and well, I'm an adult, so I guess my manual skills are a bit better than those of children. So, what models do you guys think would be suitable for kids, that will try it for the first-time and that can interest them enough, so they keep creating this art long after I'm gone and generally get hooked. I know from experience, that it's extremely easy to get kids interested in something, they just have to like something, and I think most people (even kids) like something the most when they are fairly successful at something.

If for the whole day spent there, they won't even be able to build a single model, then I guess I have very little chances of getting them interested in the long-term. And children do have a great learning curve, I'm sure that if I were to interest them and they kept practicing everyday for even a month or two straight, they would surely become better than I am :P Kids literally absorb the knowledge and everything.

So far I have came up with showing them how to do: a bunny, frogs, tullips and origami rings. Frankly those were the ones that I have as first and literally had zero problems with creating them. I believe anything animal-based will be better, kids love animals and can assimiliate themselves with them more. Actually even I do. I love creating animals and it was always the biggest fun for me (so far), I'm sure I will get to experience the real fun pretty quickly once I will actually be able to do something a bit more advanced, of beginner to intermediate level, but not designed for kids :)

Would those models that I have mentioned above enough? Or do you guys have some better ideas on what I can show them? Naturally it must be something that I'm able to do, but even if I haven't tried a certain model yet, I will be more than glad to learn - shouldn't be pretty long, they are to be super easy after all :)

Thanks for your help :)

Leonard

I was actually lead a small group for a local primary school a few years ago from art. I mean, a friend of mine is a teacher there, he is mostly teaching kids how to draw and he asked me if I would be able to come around and show children the origami. Frankly, much less was interested than I supposed to. I guess the smartphone era, PC games at home etc., draw their attention to a much bigger extent than drawing and origami does. Literally once I showed a couple of projects (they were easy and interested), the kids basically fell asleep. There were maybe 4 kids, that kind of actually tried to achieve something - and they were pretty good at that too, they have completed all the models I have shown them and was eager to try out more. I doubt that they actually followed on this alone as I said - once you get back home, you have more appealing and interesting, at least for kids, world of pc games, online games with their friends and stuff. But at least some of them were interested, yet much less than I thought. Maybe it will be different in your case as after all, you are introducing it to your family, and as it usually is at family meetings, kids are usually pretty much bored. So, you should be able to get their attention, but I wouldn't get my hopes up, that they will stick to this long-term. But maybe, if they really like it and you are a good teacher (I apparently was not) you can succeed.

As for models, that I would recommend: Crane, fish, snowman, simple cat, crown and a boat. Those you have mentioned are great too, definitely show them some animals too if possible. Generally, try to get them interested and get their attention - in my case snowman worked really well for example. Simple cat was good too, kids love dogs and cats foremost.

Good luck! :)

Beacon

I doubt that you are a bad teacher Leonard - you seem to be extremely helpful on forums :P It's just that as you said, it's hard to get people interested in nowadays considered kind of alternative hobbies - origami, drawing etc. People can develop their characters in video games, watch movies and tv shows, play some games on their superb iPhones. Too many options and frankly, for most people technology is just much more appealing, + this is what their friends do - and they can relate, compete with their friends. It's extremely important aspect - competition and relating to each other, if there were more kids doing origami than playing video games, children would definitely focus on origami much more. But picking up origami to do in a meanwhile nowadays basically means that you will severely limit your relations with other kids and your friends. It's actually even worse than playing video games, for a children to feel kind of like an outsider etc. At least that's how I see it. So even though coffeegirl definitely has a higher chance of succeeding with getting attention of her family than you had at public school, in the end, they will most likely go back to their everyday activities anyway, and origami will be left only as a distant thing, that they have done in the past. Yet, it's worth a shot and you will definitely have a good time showing kids around origami and the real art. Who knows, maybe it will plant a seed that will blossom when they get older?

Anyway, keep your models simple - animals, simple to do and not too much time consuming. Only when you see that they are interested show them something, that is relatively harder and something that they can spend more time on. Otherwise, if they are not interested and they will struggle to get something done, they will quickly get bored and probably leave the table. Try to think of this as if you were a kid - would you want to do origami when you were their age? Even though I love origami now, I doubt that I would get interested as a kid, even moreso as an teenager. Too many distractions to see the real art and find your true self, when you are a kid or even a teenager, you usually look for simplest solutions and the easiest way to entertain yourself in a spare time. Origami is anything but this.

Coffeegirl

Wow, thanks for your input! I appreciate it. I will make sure to mention all models, that you have given me as an example. You are probably right - it will be hard to get their attention and I may have been getting my hopes for nothing, but still I believe it's worth a try. I'm sorry you had such experience Leonard, but I believe in public schools it is much harder to pull. As long as you operate on a bigger group of children and some of them may get initially interested, when they look at their friends who keep doing something else in the same time, or offer them to play soccer after the school, or video games at home, origami quickly loses its brilliance. I would have probably done the same. I frankly doubt that I would get interested in origami when I was a kid, unless I had other friends that are commited to this as well. But well, I will do it anyway. Worst that can happen is that we will all have a good time while it lasts and I will polish my skills, while also explaining others on how to do a certain model. Win/win either way, so I may be just worrying too much and overthinking it - after all, it's a great practice for me to.

Thanks again for input and sharing your experiences. It sure was a tremendous help for me.

Denzi

I know what you mean guys... I could say, that I always had a knack for drawing and I did fairly a lot of drawing when I was a kid, but once I became a teenager, started going out with friends to play soccer, then slowly the video games were rising to the popularity etc., I kind of dropped it to do some more engaging stuff with my friends. Even though I liked drawing and I picked it up just naturally, I didn't even have time do that later and kind of lost my interest. Friends were more important and other activities that allowed me to interact with my friends were more important than staying at home alone and drawing. That's how it is, people need other people, even as kids (or actually even more then) and thus will always follow the bigger crowd to interact with them. I have picked up drawing later again when I was in high-school and kinf of more focused on what I want to do, what I want to achieve and able to assess what to do in my spare etc. But earlier than that? I had no idea at all, I just did whatever I could to stay with my friends in a pretty cool tight-knit group we have formed together.

Getting back to the topic though - you definitely have a higher chance of succeeding than Leonard did, but as others said - I wouldn't count on getting them interested in the long-term. They will be interested initially, during your meeting with them, but as soon as they come home, their friends invite them out or if they are too young for going out, then they will have their great video games sitting on shelves just waiting for them to grab, and they will quickly forgot about what you taught them. Well, maybe not, but probably this is how it will turn out. And don't think of yourself as a bad teacher if you will fail, it's just kind of out of your control.