Education Doesn't Always Come From School

Yes, I know I have five amazing grandchildren.  They are all individuals in their own right, and I love each of them.  It appears that I write most of my grandchild blogs these days about ten year old Ewan.  I have written about the others over the years, but now they are older and because of the quarantine,  I just don't have access to all the wonderful things they do.  Ewan is the youngest, and it won't be long before he will reach the older group so I have to write about him for as long as I can although I have a feeling he will always be trying new things.

Last week he had a four day weekend.  On Monday, he decided he wanted to sew.  Since we haven't seen them for quite a while, I want to thank our daughter Heather for sending us pictures and keeping us up to date.  Ewan's dad sews a lot of functional items like bags, tarps and workshop aprons so he's a good teacher.  Ewan wanted to make an apron.  His dad had made an apron when he was in middle school and still had the pattern.  Ewan practiced for a while with the sewing machine.  He sewed through paper without thread just to get the feel of the machine.  Then he found some material he liked and started sewing for real.

He stuck with it and soon he had accomplished his first big sewing project.  He has made small little items with a needle and thread, but I think this was his first with the sewing machine.  It isn't a treadle sewing machine that he would use for his old time skills, but knowing him that will come at some point.  He now has a great looking apron complete with pockets. 

Since he was dressed for it, he decided to do some baking.  He has mastered making cookies, Nana's special dumplings and attempted bread a week ago.  On this day, he decided on a new bread recipe. Since a picture or in this case five pictures are worth a thousand words, here they are.

It looks good.  He modified his recipe a bit.  He substituted almond milk for dairy milk because he wanted his mom to be able to eat it.  Notice the kitchen, it's all cleaned up.  He even cleaned up his baking mess.  Ewan may not have had school this day, but he learned a lot of valuable skills.