Teach Your Kid To Crochet – Part 1

The Summer holidays have officially begun! While the next six weeks might represent bliss and freedom for your child in the beginning, it can often become tedious and boring. So, how can you avoid Summer sluggishness? Teaching your child to crochet is a great way for them to learn a new skill and occupy their time. Crocheting is a brilliant choice, not only is a fun and easy craft to learn, there are multiple benefits to both physical and mental wellbeing and it will even help your child develop their maths skills! Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing a series of posts to help you teach your kid to crochet. Ready to get going with the first one?

Let’s start by breaking down some of the top reasons to teach your kid to crochet:

• Crochet is a fun craft that provides children with a creative outlet to express themselves.
• Crochet will help to sharpen your child’s fine motor skills.
• It’s a great way to keep fidgety hands busy – avoiding mischief (mostly!)
• It’s not just about the crochet. Kids learning the craft will also get a boost to their reading, maths and problem solving skills.
• Crochet is calming – so it’s fab for reducing stress, boredom and frustration.
• Learning a new skill is a huge boost to self-esteem and provides a sense of accomplishment that may be missing during the Summer holidays with no schoolwork to complete.

Now we’ve covered the why, let’s start with the how…

How DO you teach your kid to crochet?

Firstly, you’re going to need patience. What comes naturally to you might not seem so easy to your child. If they’re not getting the hang of a stitch, why not try something else?

I also suggest keeping things simple. While your child might be more drawn to the fun yarns in your stash – eyelash yarn, tinsel or handspun, it’s best to start with something relatively thick like DK or aran and smooth. Cotton or acrylic is perfect – low cost, easy to crochet with and simple to view the stitches you’ve made.

Demonstrate! Children learn much quicker by watching and doing than they do listening. Watch a tutorial together, and then demonstrate the stitch for them. Then, let them try to recreate it.

Finally, remember to keep it fun! It’s much easier to keep a short attention span focused on a fun activity than something that feels like a chore!

I have a Pinterest board that’s packed FULL of quick video tutorials of beginner crochet stitches. With each video under 2 minutes long, they’re perfect for short attention spans and busy hands!

There’s also a wealth of beginner-friendly tips, patterns and tutorials here:

• 12 Crochet Tips for Beginners
• Learn To Crochet In Easy Steps 
• Beginner Crochet Video Tutorials
• 5 Beginner Friendly Crochet Patterns
• 10 Free Beginner Friendly Crochet Patterns
• 10 Crochet Patterns for Adventurous Beginners

I also have a Pinterest board that’s full of patterns suitable for beginners:

A friendship bracelet is an excellent pattern to start teaching your kid how to crochet. Easy to customise, it’s a good way to learn the basic stitches while allowing your child to experiment with colours and textures and create fun bracelets to share with their friends!

You can make bracelets using just chains, or you can create a pretty, textured bracelet with the following free pattern:

HOW TO CROCHET A FRIENDSHIP BRACELET

Abbreviations

Chain (ch): Yarn over, pull through.

Double crochet (dc): Insert hook into stitch, yarn over, pull up a loop, you will have two loops on the hook. Yarn over, pull through remaining two loops.

Treble Crochet(s): tr(s): Yarn over, insert into stitch, yarn over, pull up a loop, you will have three loops on the hook. Yarn over, pull through two loops, yarn over, pull through remaining two loops.

Stitch(es) (st/s)

NOTES

This pattern uses UK terms

I have used DK yarn and a size 4 hook. By using a large hook, you create a stitches that are easy to see and easy to get the hook into.

Unsure of the differences between UK and US terms? Need a refresher on how to do your stitches? In my ‘How to crochet: A handy reference guide’ EBook I help you with all of these terms and you can always have them to hand! You will also get exclusive access to free video instructions. You can find my EBook HERE.

PIN FOR LATER

Want to keep on top of the latest Bella Coco news? The best way is to subscribe to my newsletter…you get a weekly inbox packed full of news, patterns and tips!