One more stitch, One more page... Hooks & Books

When you crochet in public, people ask you what you’re doing.

When you tell them, they ask you can you teach other people.

When you say that you can, they ask you when you’re free.

And next thing you know, you’re running an after-school class, teaching middle schoolers how to crochet.

That’s how it all began.  But I didn’t want to only teach them how to crochet, I wanted there to be some academic component to it. I consider a math tie-in – there’s a lot there as far as gauge, stitches per inch, patterns, felting – but I decided to go with literacy. Surprise! I presented the idea to the Principal and ta-da – Hooks & Books became a thing.  And I did have to explain to some folks that no, I was not starting a fishing lessons class.  Thursdays, after school, yarn, crochet hooks, and National Book Award winner, Coretta Scott King Award winner, and Newbery Honor Book, Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson.

Week 1 was an intro lesson, we read a few pages and worked on chain stitches. 

Belated Happy Birthday to author Jacqueline Woodson!

Week 2 - we talked about the importance of names and what people call you after reading a girl named jack and our names. We continued to work on the chain stitch – there were a few kids still getting the first chains going, others whose chain was as tall as they are. For those who were ready, we moved on to double chain stitch.  Talk about differentiated learning and teaching.

I’m prepping for Week 3. We’ll be talking about the stories of South Carolina and perfecting the double chain.

One more stitch, one more page….

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My Child's First Resignation Letter

Again, my children signed up for a bunch of activities, stuff that they really really wanted to do and promised to do without whining or dragging their feet when time to go to practice/rehearsal.  And again, mid-way through after realizing that practice is every week and not always so fun, they are whining and dragging their feet. But for the most part, they get there. You know, because I paid for it and they have to commit to a thing and sometimes activities are boring, life can't be a merry-go-round of excitement all the time, etc., etc.

Which leaves me to wonder - what am I doing to myself? Why not just let them quit and then I can stay home, save some gas, and finish reading this book I've been carrying around with me forever?  Is teaching them the concept of commitment really worth my sanity?  Well, the last time my daughter gave me the list of excuses - so much homework, a stomach ache, looks like rain - I decided that there's a lesson to be learned in quitting, too.

I let me daughter quit one of her after-school activities with two conditions.

1. She owed me half of the fees that I had paid. She had birthday money, snow shoveling money, allowance and could pay me back in installments.  No point in me taking a financial loss when she changed her mind. 
2. She had to write a letter of resignation. Yes, like the kind when you leave a job.  I wanted her to realize that you can't just walk out on an activity and leave a group who is depending on you to show up. Whether a choir, a sports team, the school play, or game of jump rope - folks are counting on you to be there and take your role and if you're going to quit on them, you at least let them know you're leaving and offer an explanation.

The letter is done, we emailed it to the appropriate people and they have acknowledged that they received it.  We are free from racing across town one evening of the week, our calendar has a few more blank spaces on it, and I've read a few more pages in my book. As for my financial recovery?  Still waiting.

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Pack the Car with Snacks & Fun

It's one of those days.  I'm getting in the car in time to get to school #1 before the bell to pick up a kid - and for the next five hours will be making a circuit around the county from dentist appointments to after-school activities to school pick-ups to church.  The kids are in rotation as I drop one off, pick up another, go back and get another - you know how it is.  And the schedule is tight, so I don't really have a bunch of time to stop and pick up a snack for that one, roll through McD's for a smoothie for that one - who will tell the others that they got something from McD's and then I've got to stop again.

We should be home in time for dinner (so, yes, it's a crock-pot day, too) but in the meantime, I will have a carload full of folks who are soooo hungry.  The snack bag to the rescue!

Snacks for the hungry ride.

I carry a snack bag for these long, car-ride days.  Not just for the sake of snacking while bored, but because they probably will be legitimately a little bit hungry - the kids eat lunch rather early in the day and have athletic activities after school.  I pack non-perishables, then I can leave it in the car until it needs replenishing.  Cereal bars, crackers, water and juice.  I will bring along grapes (an easy, no-peel, no-mess fruit), too.  And yes, there's even stuff for me - don't we always forget ourselves?

Other stuff to keep in the car for the after-school mini-roadtrips?  School supplies and entertainment.

• Pencils & erasers for the kid who forgot theirs and needs to do homework
• Flashcards, even though they don't use them in school, but it's still a good way to study math facts and spelling words.  You can have them write their spelling words on index cards when they first get their list.
• Books that they are supposed to be reading for school. Or fun reading just to be entertained - my son loves those amazing facts and greatest record books.
• Small toys or games - Or pieces of a game, like the cards from a Trivial Pursuit game.
• Playing cards - they can play when sitting and waiting

With all of this time in the car, there is also all the wrappers and paper and trash that inevitably finds their way into the car door handles (which my kids think are convenient little trash cans that a car fairy comes and cleans out), onto the car floor, and in between the car seats.  I saw an idea - on Pinterest, in Real Simple, who knows - to use a plastic container for a trash can.  The flip-top kind you use for cereal or sugar in your pantry.  I happen to have two empty ones and I just happen to have two rows in my car.  Let's see how that works out.

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