Craft helps knit together kids' motor, math skills

Jocelynn Brown / The Detroit News

Twelve-year-old Madison Becigneul-Koonter of Southfield beams with pride as she talks about the rainbow-colored hat she knitted for her dad last year. "He wore it all the time," says the sixth grader, while effortlessly knitting a six-inch square during her handwork class last week at Detroit Waldorf School located in the city's historic Indian Village.

Becigneul-Koonter learned to knit in first grade as part of the school's non-traditional curriculum, which also includes cloth doll-making and quilting.

Right now, though, knitting is the main focus of all the handwork classes because the students are preparing for their first Knit-a-Thon fundraiser, which runs now through Oct. 24, ending that day with a Cast-Off event at the school.

Arlene Cornier, a handwork teacher at Detroit Waldorf where two of her children attend, says all students at the school (preschool-eighth grade) learn knitting because it helps them develop fine motor skills and "requires focused attention and practical math skills."

While determining stitch gauge and counting/measuring knitted rows helps strengthen math skills, handwork instructor Beth Krause sees yet another advantage. "It develops conceptual thinking, which goes hand-in-hand with problem solving," she says. "So we're preparing children to solve problems in the adult world."

Linda Williams, Ph.D., assistant professor for the College of Education Department of Teacher Education at Eastern Michigan University, recently worked with a group of third through eighth graders in an after-school knitting program at a local charter school.

"We were able to document some increase in math skills and in motor skills and coordination," Williams says. "Knitting and other handwork crafts seem to increase the ability to focus attention and coordinate motor and cognitive skills, as well as generate feelings of accomplishment. This was consistent with what I had observed in my pilot study and at Detroit Waldorf."

Student Julian Trombley, a 13-year-old Detroiter who learned to knit in second grade, thinks knitting is "fun" and agrees, it "makes some academic difference."

Anyone can participate in the school's Knit-a-Thon (see box). Participants are asked to collect pledges for each six-inch square they knit (or crochet). During the Cast-Off celebration, squares will be stitched together to make blankets that will be donated to Children's Hospital of Michigan. Proceeds from both events will benefit Detroit Waldorf.

According to school Outreach Director Melanie Reiser, the Knit-a-Thon is an excellent way to teach students how to use their hearts and hands to benefit their school and others in the community, while exemplifying values taught at the school -- "kindness toward others, and compassion for those in need."

jbrown@detnews.com (313) 222-2150