Last weekend, I stayed at a makerspace with my family. Since I was hosting three workshops from Friday to Sunday, I was honestly a little worried that my daughter might get bored at some point.
When she runs out of things to do or something does not go the way she wants, she often starts saying “Langweilig” (“boring” in German) or “Mama, is there anything I can do?” I vaguely remember feeling the same way as a child myself, so I understand it. But when I am busy running workshops and preparing things, it can also be quite difficult.
There were definitely moments like that on the first day after we arrived. But little by little, something began to change.
She started looking around for ways to help on her own, running from place to place, helping adults, carrying things around, and naturally started interacting with other children and running around together with them.
Watching this made me realize that I do not always have to prepare something for her. I found myself wondering if this is how she behaves at school too. It was a mixture of warmth, surprise, and pride.
What impressed me most was how the people at the makerspace genuinely listened to her ideas and treated her like a fellow maker. Some of her requests and ideas were honestly the kind that might make me think, “Oh no, not that again…” 😅 But everyone still took the time to listen to her seriously. Seeing my child naturally accepted into the community made me deeply happy and grateful 🥺
After quietly watching this for three days, I started thinking that maybe children do not necessarily need environments specially prepared according to their age. Perhaps what matters more is being able to naturally exist in spaces where adults are creating things, organizing events, building, experimenting, and making things together.
By the end of the weekend, I found myself once again thinking how wonderful makerspaces are, and how wonderful making things can be.
It was a nice busy weekend full of making. In between workshops, I could experiment with machines. I look forward to work on my piece and share what I learnt as a workshop in the future 😊
先週末は家族でメイカースペースに滞在していました。ワークショップの合間に、子どもが少しずつコミュニティの中で自分の役割や居場所を見つけていく姿がとても印象的でした。ものづくりコミュニティの包容力や、子どもの成長について感じたことを、日本語部分はnoteに書いたのでよかったら！