Recently, my daughter started a “learning journey” with the art of weaving with a loom.  It’s suddenly very popular with young children.  My son is getting involved as well.  I’ve been amazed at her progress in making loom jewelry.  I mean using a loom isn’t easy.  In fact, the company that makes the prodcut struggled to get the toy companies to buy them and place them on their shelves.  Why?  People didn’t know how to use them.

Weaving with a loom has been around for ages.  Different cultures around the world have used looms since 6000 BC to create everything from cloth for wrapping and burying the dead, stylish clothes, to intricate pieces of jewelry and art.

Ella, my daughter, learned about the Rainbow Loom at school with her friends.  She became very interested when her friends showed off all of their stylish bracelets that they made themselves.  The NY Times has a great article about how a the Ng family started it from their home in Michigan back in 2010.

Here’s a video that briefly describes her journey in making an advanced bracelet.

The story really makes me think of how powerful motivation is with learning.   What Ella doesn’t tell you is that she became frustrated from all of the failed attempts she made.  She even broke down and cried on 1 or 2 occassions.  I tried to help her but my knowledge wasn’t any better than hers.  So, we still failed.  However, she didn’t quit.  She was determined and after several revisions, or retries, she perservered.

How does this connect to the classroom “learning journeys” that we make?