And, perhaps surprisingly, they learn to relax. In a world where so much is rushed, sitting quietly and folding paper figures can bring a sense of balance, mindfulness, and peace to even younger children. For those younger kids, there’s also the satisfaction of being able to fold a piece of paper into a figure that they aren’t yet capable of drawing.
When doing origami with young children, it’s super important to bear in mind certain things:
1. Practice folding the figures you plan to teach them so you’ll be able walk through the steps with the kids, and help them through the tricky parts that might be hard for them.
2. Practicing is also important because invariably some figures may need to be simplified for younger children. Typically, all you’ll have to do is just leave out the final steps. I really like the Origami Resource Center for step-by-step diagrams and instruction. All of the figures can be done in fewer than 10 steps, so it’s a great place to get inspiration.
3. Have well light work space for the children and plenty of paper and crayons or other supplies they might need. (Origami paper is often colored one side and white on the other. You can have the kids color one side, if you’re using regular white paper.)
4. Be sure to explain each fold in simple terms, showing them (possibly on a big piece of paper) what they need to do every step of the way.
5. You want to be sure the youngsters understand what they need to do and ensure you give them enough time to work it out themselves—don’t jump in too quickly to help them. This, of course, can be challenging, if you have a group of kids, but I taught kindergarten and managed with 25 five-year-olds. So you can do it!
6. Let them try to fix their own mistakes without too much help. Let them know they can “{try again” as many times as they need.
7. Kids like repetition and so they need time and repetition to work things out.
8. Praise, praise and praise some more—if the figure is somewhat crooked or a little wrinkled, so what?
9. Let the child express what she thinks of her piece. Everyone has different ideas and opinions as to what’s nice. Let your child begin to develop those faculties.
10. |Kids and abstract forms don’t always| mix well. (Trust me!) I have found that sometimes it’s helps to let them color or paint faces on their animals.
There is a growing body of research into the benefits of origami for children, including there’s been a spate of books on its mathematical dimensions. To me, it’s kind of like playing cribbage with kids. They’re learning to compute but they don’t even know it. They’re just playing a game. And no need to get nervous about your own ability to do origami. Keep simple and the video below is a great place to start.
