This page (and more as needed) is dedicated to sharing ideas and thoughts on using Temari in education and sharing the technique with young folks. Temari is loaded with opportunites to teach basic and advanced math and geometry, color theory, 3 dimensional art, design concepts, and for exploring a culture and traditions of another country. It can also teach attention to detail, accuracy and patience, not to mention just be a fun craft.  I invite you to share your ideas and experiences of using Temari with youth....  and hope that this might become a resource for those who can and will use it as a teaching tool.

• Temari Stitching 2002-2003 at Daphne Intermediate
  
• Temari Cards Project at Daphne Intermediate
  
• Temari Stitching 1999-2001 at Daphne Intermediate
  

• Nicole has been offering temari lessons in her local school through their art teacher: Well after almost two weeks of teaching my third graders, I have learned more than I ever wanted to know about what NOT to do. I am doing them in two separate groups and the one that is second gets the benefit of my practicing on the first. The second one is also a better group so they are a bit more teachable. Today we finished up the first and I just had them do random stitching on the ball. You can only use the phrase, "Wow! It looks like fireworks" once at each table before they catch on. With tomorrows class I think we will wrap our 4 division lines, then let them free stitch in the open spaces. I have learned a bunch of good ways to make some things more understandable for kids, like when you start your thread away from the pole, then come out at the pin I told them to think of the needle as a shark and the pin as a person. If the pin comes up too soon the person could see it and run away so you have to bring it right up next to them. They liked anything I did that was silly so it was a pretty fun time. The art teacher has a display in the hallway where she hung several of the temari donated by this group last year along with pictures of the kids working on their maris this year. It looks great!  Nicole B. / Tennessee
  

• Paula G also has summer temari time with kids:" I just got back from a week at Cape Cod....it was wonderful to spend time with all my neices and nephews.  I had a temari learning group with all 7 of them, ages 3 to 12.  The 9 to 12 year olds (5 kids) each completed a simple crossed spindle ball and are part way thru their second.  I had wrapped and marked the balls for them before the lessons since that boring and complicated part seemed to be a hang up last time I attempted this.  The 3 year old and 6 year old both were determined to make a ball, but naturally couldn't handle the fine motor requirements. But they didn't want to make a scrap ball as they figured that was just for babies, so I called it a "random three", three after the 3 year olds age altho I didn't tell them this was the source of the name!  This rather esoteric name satisfied them. The 6 year olds "random three" ball is actually beautiful with many different colors and just a few stitches randomly of each.  Unfortunately I had forgotten my camera! Paul then summarized her thoughts to share with those wishing to work with kids in this age range:  1. bring assistants with you who know what they are doing! Especially if you have 50 children to teach. Actually, as long as they can thread needles they will be very helpful!! 2. Be prepared for a range of abilities...you might allow some children to do what we called a "random three" ball, to give it a special neat name, which is just random stitches of color all over the ball (looks really neat, too, wish I had taken a picture). 3. For the majority of students I would recommend a crossed spindle design.  Kids love how a secondary pattern emerges.  The pattern is simple enough for them to replicate on the opposite pole.  4. I recommend you have the balls wrapped and marked.  You will have enough on you hands to get them all with threaded needles.  You could have a second go round for those interested, maybe a temari club!! to learn how to mark a ball. 5. If you bring a few packs of the inexpensive craft thread that is the size and feel of pearl 5, kids will be able to pick their colors.  If you do a crossed spindle, 2 colors per child work well.  For those that fly thru you can let them add metalic to the last rounds." Paula G. / Pennsylvania

• Meet Elsbeth as she makes her first Temari....

• My 12 year old daughter Natasha completed her 3rd temari today, a Chrysanthemum design done on a simple 8.  As well, she has wrapped 12 maris for a friend of mine. Thanks for your support and for having such a wonderful resource for those of us who love temari.Thanks,--Karen K.  in Ottawa, Ontario

• I have taught children in grades three and four to do temari balls using a styrofoam ball as the base and DMC floss as the wrap. I started with a very simple design and gradually worked up to more difficult patterns until 4 balls were complete. Each ball took two days of teaching and the children had the rest of the week between lessons to complete what they had learned. For the children that had a very difficult time due to their own flexibility I started by using yarn in a Lopi weight so they did not get discouraged and could handle the materials easily. They quickly advanced to DMC floss once they had the concept down pat. We did this over a Christmas season so the colours reds and greens and whites with lots of sparkly silvers and golds to accent. I have also taught a 4H group of Girls and Boys and all were extremely enthusiastic. The ages ranged from 5 years old to 18 years old and they were delighted with what they could accomplish in a short time. The group made 82 temari balls of all sizes imaginable and all colours and they sold them at a garage fair event to raise money for their group. Three of the boys and two of the girls have gone on to create quite complicated patterns for themselves and often bring them for show and tell. I think getting the youth involved is a wonderful idea. These children are our next artisans and need peers who can teach them and encourage their creativity so they can develope new ideas for us to learn from. Email  Alana Rutherford
• Blair H just spent some time visiting her sister, and tells "I was amazed how well Maddy took to Temari. This young lady plays the drums, is in 7th Grade, and is known as the pee wee terror by the boys on her soccer team so needlework was not something I thought she would take an interest in. Her Mom, my little sister, told me she has never seen her sit for so long and work on one project for such an extended period of time. We went shopping on a Monday for supplies. We worked together Monday afternoon and evening and Tuesday afternoon and evening. I wrapped one ball for her as she wrapped her own ball. I wanted to make sure she had two to work on after I came home. She marked hers herself and watched me demonstrate with a piece of thread that I pulled out after I was done.  I taught her the rose garden design first (Mary Wood?) then the spindle design. I showed her to do free hand sewing to decorate blank spaces between the spindles. She was about half way through the rose garden and almost done with the spindle design ( click here to see it in progress ) when I left Wednesday. Email Blair H.

• Check out Amy's son Riley - at the ripe old age of four (yes, years) working on his first Temari. Email Amy