Yes, we have to make things.

[JDPriestly]

When we lived in Germany and Austria, I noticed that the children in those countries at that time learned things like knitting and playing little plastic recorders in our local, state-run three-year kindergarten.

In addition to abstract arithmetic and math, the children learned applied math of a very basic sort. If you can knit, you can count beyond ten, coordinate your hands and if you can play a little plastic recorder, you learn to think in abstract terms, you train your memory and again you have to work to coordinate your hands and your brain.

I don't know whether the German and Austrian kindergartens still teach these skills, but I'm pretty sure that we do not. Our children do crafts, but I don't know to what extent the crafts they do integrate pre-engineering or pre-math skills as do knitting and playing a simple musical instrument.

Also, it may be that our local kindergarten was unusual.

I think that these crafts help children learn to plan projects, focus and finish what they start. Kids have a lot of fun doing them. I don't see very many American kids doing these things. Of course, our kids used to play with Lego a lot. I don't know if children do that. Computer games can be good, but I don't see that they encourage children to integrate thinking and coordination of muscles that need to be used in making things. Computers seem relatively easy to use, not as challenging for children as skills like knitting or woodwork or playing a musical instrument.