Boys Hand Weaving

It all started with a crochet hook and an inquisitive boy.

  My 9 year old boy found a crochet hook and asked if I knew how to use it. I told him I did, so he of course asked for a lesson. I found him some yarn and showed him a 2 minute lesson on how to make a simple chain. It was confusing, and his boy hands were having a hard time. I went back to vacuuming thinking that it would be the last lesson he would ask me for as I did not do a very good job. I was so wrong. About 1/2 hour later I moved the vacuum down to the Family Room and was met with a very excited 9 year old. He had crocheted a chain twice his height and he was beaming! :)
 
Fast forward a few hours to when Aunt Mindy comes for a visit and unveils the mysteries of hand weaving. I remember hours of hand weaving when I was young so I was very excited about it, which no doubt fueled the ensuing hand weaving extravaganza. We got out the bin of yarn and ever since,my  9,8, and 5 year old boys have done almost nothing else. We are sitting at the table eating lunch ; they are weaving. They are out feeding the chickens, dogs, and cats; they are weaving at the same time! Funny boys! You can imagine the smiles they brought me as they went about their chores and goals for the day with their weaving in progress.

  My silly 8 year old put a skein of yarn in the back of his pants so he can take it wherever he goes. We joked about him being a spider weaving a web. So fun! I love it.

  The lesson I keep being taught over and over is that my boys will learn best when they are interested in something and once they get going, it would take something major to get them to stop. I also keep learning that everything they learn does not need to come from me. They will get enthusiastic about things all on their own. It is up to me to provide the means whereby they can exercise their new found passions.  These passions are changing about every week with my 9 and under set of kids so I use the library and inexpensive ways to help them along. The 12 and older set of kiddos have more or less settled on the things that they are passionate about, so I can invest more of our education budget on them. Yarn is pretty cheap, but recording software requires an investment. :)

As I type, my 5, 8 and 9 year olds are weaving while they practice a magic trick they just learned. :)