Some people love summer, but as the mom of a school aged child I am here to say summer is the worst. I love the routine of school, and summer always catapults us into some strange hodgepodge of day camps, all of which seem to require driving at least a half hour in the opposite direction either during rush hour in the morning or before the work day ends in the afternoon.
Sigh.
This month, the camp my middle son has been attending is a 20-30 minute commute each way. My partner usually drives us, so one morning last week I thought that instead of checking work emails on the trip, I’d grab a hook and yarn and show the kiddo how to do a chain stitch. He has learned to knit a few times, with mixed success, and I thought maybe crochet would “click” for him. He naturally wants to hold the yarn in his left hand, so I didn’t think crochet would be too terribly difficult.
I was right! He took to it pretty quickly, and over the next few trips he perfected the tension. I told him I wouldn’t show him the next step until he could make a perfect chain – not too tight and not too loose.
Along with the long commute, due to the unfortunate timing of the camp, there are, inevitably, some days here and there where there is a glitch in the schedules and we have an impromptu “Bring Your Child To Work After Camp Day.” (Rolls right off the tongue, doesn’t it?)
This week had a couple of those days, so my son got to join our office crew for the afternoon! On Monday, he brought his crochet with him (and an iPad, because we can’t keep him from Minecraft for too long). Much to his chagrin, I cut his chain off and handed the hook and yarn back with instructions to chain a scarf’s width of perfect stitches.
I worked the first row of single crochet stitches for him as he watched, and then he tried it. He did a pretty good job, too! He wants to crochet himself a scarf, and if he keeps working on it I’ll be sure to post a follow up this winter!
Now if someone could just invent teleportation and design every day camp to perfectly align with the work day…..