Dear Helen, my daughter, now 9, made her first attempts at age of 5. in between, i taught the first stitches to about ten more children, mostly during holidays, so there were only a few days to finish at least a little bookmark. Those children were from eight to ten years old.
if possible, I take the snake, like Robin suggested, and let them start with CTC, because they *see* how he threads form the structure. At this age, most children have a little experience in weaving on a small hand loom, so they understand what they are doing. Let them take coloured passives after their own choice, and a working pair in different colour help and make individual snakes, although not all children need this. The snake pattern allows to introduce additional Ts to obtaine structure during the work- and again, they understand what they are doing. So, Alice, in my opinion, the best way to learn (or teach) something is neither "start hard to enjoy later", nor "make it as simple as possible for the little cuties". As children's brain capacities are usually underestimated, give them (as well as adults) something to understand the principles and teach them how to go on alone. There was a girl of 9 who sat at my side for hours, while i was making a small insertion in Tonder, some 20 pairs. After a while, she understood the CTTT point ground just from watching. I let her do some of the "ground only" areas on my lace, in 140 e.c, this was her first BL ever. She did it great, managed the footside only little after. My litle boy (now 7) has not the patience to make a whole pattern of his own. But he likes to "help" me and make a small area of CTpinCT "for me" ;-) A ten year old boy was watching last summer, again for hours, sitting opposite to me, a small table between us. When I gave him a start, he did al Cs and Ts in the wrong direction: just like he had seen them while watching from the back side. I was working an old Flemish pattern then, in linen 120/2, quite complicated. He could actually always show on the technical diagam where I was. And he never saw lacemaking before. Took him only minutes to learn the stitches the right way, and then he finished a snake. For me, it's important that they make "something real". The snake. A sampler bookmark for grandma's borthday. An egg-shaped (or hen or rabbit or flower) tape for Easter.. introduce more than one stitch in a short time, so they have to think, see differences, realize that it's them who make the pattern. enjoy! Eva, from grey and wet Germany - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
