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This Is Too Hard!
I did a crochet demo for a children's book discussion group and I despair of young people today. Of course, I felt that way ten years ago when I had a workshop for kids on beading and not only could they not thread their own needles, but they didn't understand how a needle worked. They were trying to keep the short end of the thread along the length of the needle, as if the needle were spooning the thread through the hole instead of dragging it.
The crocheters, all at least 9 if not 11 years of age, did not know how to make one of those slip knots that tightens when you pull one end of the thread. This is the whole basis for crochet. It's a loop I thought people used all the time. And one of them could not grasp the concept of "make a loop, insert another loop" even just with fingers. "That's too hard," she declared and gave up totally.
In the end, we barely made strings of loops we could glue googley eyes to and call snake bookmarks.
What do you do with kids like this?
Yesterday we had a craft where we made hand-print lilies. They traced their hand on yellow or orange copier paper, cut out that shape, curled the fingers, and taped it around a straw (with folded chenille stems for pistils/stamens and green paper leaves). I was prepared that some kids are too young to use scissors and would need some adult help, but would enjoy their hand being the flower. I was not prepared for kids who didn't want to do that craft at all.
I wrestled with that. I know that kids are really creative, and if they want to do something else, they might have a better idea. But because an older girl wanted to do her own thing ("I can cut out hearts and all sorts of things"), a younger one (not even related to her) rejected the flower idea as well. He, at least, came back to it, after he determined that whatever idea he thought he had wasn't panning out. And what marvels did the older girl come up with instead of the hand-print lily? She cut out a 2" x 3" rectangle and wrote her name on it and taped it to the straw as a flag.
But, you know what? She was satisfied with that. And you know what else? I have to be satisfied with it, too. She's happy - what more do I want?
I had a four year old struggling with a pair of scissors to cut out hand prints for him and his younger brother, but he was content. His lily was a bit fringed, but both he and his brother were happy with their results.
Anyone else having skills troubles or kids who say "This is too hard!" and give up? How do you handle that?
The crocheters, all at least 9 if not 11 years of age, did not know how to make one of those slip knots that tightens when you pull one end of the thread. This is the whole basis for crochet. It's a loop I thought people used all the time. And one of them could not grasp the concept of "make a loop, insert another loop" even just with fingers. "That's too hard," she declared and gave up totally.
In the end, we barely made strings of loops we could glue googley eyes to and call snake bookmarks.
What do you do with kids like this?
Yesterday we had a craft where we made hand-print lilies. They traced their hand on yellow or orange copier paper, cut out that shape, curled the fingers, and taped it around a straw (with folded chenille stems for pistils/stamens and green paper leaves). I was prepared that some kids are too young to use scissors and would need some adult help, but would enjoy their hand being the flower. I was not prepared for kids who didn't want to do that craft at all.
I wrestled with that. I know that kids are really creative, and if they want to do something else, they might have a better idea. But because an older girl wanted to do her own thing ("I can cut out hearts and all sorts of things"), a younger one (not even related to her) rejected the flower idea as well. He, at least, came back to it, after he determined that whatever idea he thought he had wasn't panning out. And what marvels did the older girl come up with instead of the hand-print lily? She cut out a 2" x 3" rectangle and wrote her name on it and taped it to the straw as a flag.
But, you know what? She was satisfied with that. And you know what else? I have to be satisfied with it, too. She's happy - what more do I want?
I had a four year old struggling with a pair of scissors to cut out hand prints for him and his younger brother, but he was content. His lily was a bit fringed, but both he and his brother were happy with their results.
Anyone else having skills troubles or kids who say "This is too hard!" and give up? How do you handle that?
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