Time to Crochet!

 Since pretty much all of my students are taking the summer off from tutoring (I'm starting a new client next week), I was hired to teach four sisters that go to my church how to crochet! I'm having them start by learning how to chain, then do single crochet to make a square dish cloth. They all had fun picking out yarn and hooks from our brand new Dollar Tree in town! (WooHoo!)

But when it came time to actually start crocheting, they were a little bit overwhelmed. "How do I do this?" I heard that question a lot. Also "Help me!" I got them to where they were comfortable with chaining. Then came making their first row. I taught them to make a loop, then skip the first stitch on the chain, and single crochet in the next chain. Put the hook through from front to back, yarn over, pull through one loop, yarn over, pull through two loops. Voila! Then just go straight across. 

The oldest girl's stitches were way too tight, and we had to rip out the first row for her to redo it, much looser this time. The second to last girl was getting a clump on her chain, and I think she was not progressing down the chain, I think she was stitching in the same chain over and over again. The youngest started doing her first row, and was doing fine, but then she just sat there saying "I'm so confused!"

The second-to-oldest was doing the best and seemed the most interested, asking questions constantly to make sure she was doing it right. She pretty much was, but she was inserting the hook into the back of her row instead of through the front. I told her that it had to go through the front. Her row was a little twisted due to the way she was making stitches, but I told her we could make it work, and to just make the rest of the stitches the right way. 

They kept at it for a few more minutes, but one by one, they lost interest and took off. 

Their mom was hoping to give them something to do on a long road trip they'll be taking next week. 

We'll just have to wait and see about that.