A guide for self-improvement — minus the report cards, plus some bruises.
Think you’ve mastered adulthood? Think again. Smarten Up is a guide to doing life a little better — or at least, a lot more interestingly. From testing your comedic timing and sword-fighting finesse to weaving your way toward mindfulness, we’ve rounded up dozens of classes, workshops and weirdly satisfying ways to flex your brain.
Go on — learn something new, bruise your ego a little and come out smarter for it.
Difficulty score: 2/5
Fun score: 5/5
Imagine holding up a blanket, tea towel or rug and being able to say you made it with your own two hands. That’s exactly what beginner and more experienced weavers learn to do at Fern’s School of Craft, a local textile workshop studio led by owner Fern Facette.
“The vast majority of us have some sort of ancestral connection to textiles, because there was a time not that long ago when all of our textiles were made by hand,” says Facette, an artist who founded the school in 2017 and has since mentored local artists in weaving and through a tufting gun artist residency program she started. “Different techniques were employed by different regions depending on what the culture is or what fibres were available. But, historically, we all have that deep connection to textiles.”
The school offers a variety of textile classes, like punch needling, embroidery, felting and quilting. Facette teaches the loom weaving classes (among others), which see students using wooden
loom structures to weave thread into textiles. The beginner-friendly, project-based weaving sessions teach you how to weave actual items you can take home, like blankets and rugs, rather than just samples. “If you’re already an experienced weaver, we can up the complexity by introducing more complicated designs.”
She adds, “One thing I really love is the process. It’s very regulating and meditative.” The relaxing act, she says, offers a way to detach from screens in favour of a tactile experience that promotes focus, new challenges and small but immediate rewards as your progress builds up. — Alana Willerton
Weaving classes start at $85; other classes start at $65, fernsschoolofcraft.com
Difficulty score: 3/5
Fun score: 4/5
Watching Kenjutsu — a Japanese martial art with centuries of history — it’s hard not to be mesmerized by the whir of weapons in motion. James Lyall has practised Japanese swordsmanship for 26 years, and as an instructor at Edmonton Kenjutsu since 2023, he’s witnessed firsthand how students come to understand and connect with the art. “The light that comes on in a person’s eyes is just magical,” he says.
Edmonton Kenjutsu holds weekly meetups in Kazoku Dojo, a karate gym, where newcomers watch a class before joining to learn what to expect. During the classes, students of all skill levels train together doing paired forms and exercises largely with wooden swords. As students learn, the curriculum also occasionally introduces other weapons, such as staffs and spears, as well as dulled metal swords for solo exercises.
But beyond the physical sword skills, Kenjutsu training can improve your discipline, speed and precision. It can also help with “keeping yourself centred,” according to Lyall. “Once you get used to the idea of somebody swinging a stick at your head at that speed, you can handle a lot of other stresses in your life.” — Alana Willerton
$75 per month, edmonton.kenjutsu.ca
Difficulty score: 3/5
Fun score: 5/5
For as long as she can remember, Natalie Pepin longed to live a simple life — tucked away in the forest, chopping her own firewood, canning food she grew, building the home in which she and her family lives. With skills, fortitude and a little help, she’s realized this dream with her off-grid homestead just north of Edmonton. “Quality of life, happiness, connection to the land, time with family — those things haven’t improved as we’ve become more modern,” says the Métis educator and founder of Meeting My Ancestors, a cultural organization that hosts workshops and courses. “Being close to culture is a really big part of living on the land. It’s a central, driving force in almost everything I do.”
Pepin started hosting informal sessions 15 years ago as a way for Métis people to learn the hands-on, instructional elements of their traditional arts and skills, such as beading, soap-making and hide-tanning. Of course, “it’s more fun to do things with other people around,” so she began extending invitations — and soon discovered she’d tapped into an underserved need. Many Métis and Indigenous people had been disconnected from cultural skills through the traumatic legacy of residential schools, and today, Meeting My Ancestors offers dozens of programs every year.
Her courses and workshops — delivered online and in-person — include moccasin making, fish-scale art and star blankets, which honour ancestral connections and mark life’s pivotal milestones. Some courses, like the Métis Women’s Program, are up to a year-long and solely for Métis and Indigenous learners, but others, like beginner beading, are a few weeks and open to everyone. “When I teach beadwork, I’m not just teaching beadwork,” she explains. “I’m sharing history of our relationship with that art form and history for Indigenous people through these classes. People get a chance to connect in a way that’s not intimidating. It’s fun and our focus is on something that people celebrate.” — Alyssa Noel
Free or paid courses starting at $25, meetingmyancestors.com
Difficulty score: 2/5
Fun score: 4/5
Chef Kathryn Joel has seen it all at her in-person cooking classes. “We get everything from the teenager whose mother has sent them, which does happen, to the guy whose girlfriend has sent him, to couples just wanting a night out,” says the owner of Get Cooking, a cooking class company operating from a ground-floor studio in MacEwan University’s Residence Building.
Joel, who trained at Le Cordon Bleu London and Leiths School of Food and Wine, two of the U.K.’s top culinary schools, started Get Cooking in 2011 out of her home kitchen as the sole teacher. Today, she and her team of instructors, hold several classes every week. “It’s a bit like a kitchen party,” she says, with class participants doing both individual tasks and cooking together around one large island.
“We embrace all skill levels.”
Joel teaches most of the classes, from fresh pasta to northern Thai curries (which includes a Khao Soi recipe, her personal favourite). Other recent classes have included chicken ramen with MasterChef Canada contestant Mai Nguyen, and the basics of sourdough with Joel and Owen Petersen of Prairie Mill Bread Co. fame.
In each of Joel’s classes, she tries to incorporate translatable skills and tips that can be used both in the moment and in other dishes as well. Encouraging flexibility and adaptability, Joel wants guests to leave feeling confident so that they can stray slightly from a recipe whenever they need. “We all eat,” says Joel, “so if you can make cooking easier and a little joyful at home, it’s huge.” — Alana Willerton
Class prices start at $165, getcooking.ca
