Teaching young children crochet

[FrogLover]

Does anyone on here have any useful tips/experience of teaching crichet to young children?

I have volonteered to run a craft workshop at an event in our local park in two weeks time. I originally proposed basic crochet lessons as one of the activities. My idea was to let the kids start gently by doing a chain long enough to go around their wrist then add a row of single crochet and a row of double crochet. Then my plan was to let them put their new-found skill into practice by showing them how to make a simple flower to decorate their new "bracelet".

Now I'm wondering if this is a good idea as I don't have any experience teaching kids to crochet and I'm not sure how old they would need to be to have a fair chance of managing it. I know that I could knit and crochet when I was about 5 but that is because my mother was obsessed with teaching me. Have any of you already taught kids to crochet? What age group should I be aiming at? Any other useful tips?

I've got some reasonably large crochets (sizes 3 - 6) so that they won't have to fiddle around with the fine ones and will make sure that the wool we use is suitable for that size.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

PS The other activities will be decorating an old sheet with appliqué and embroidered flowers to make a picnic mat and making bunting out of fabric offcuts so the younger kids should be able to do that too (with round-tipped needles, obviously).

I just sat and taught two of dss 5yo friends to knit by having them sat on my knee and holding the needles gently for them. They picked it up really quickly after we'd figured out a rhymn: "in-round-down-upandover"

I think the bracelet is a great idea but the flower may be a bit ambitious. I;d take some with me just in case. Also perhaps get them to double chain - make a foundation chain then with a larger hook crochet the foundation chain again. Makes a thicker, less stretchy cord

Perhaps also have some squares started off that they can work on without having that fiddly first row. could work this up to a wrap dress for a small doll

As for age, 5 and over I would think

Thanks Pheebe,

I'm definitely going to have some flowers ready and I was thinking that for the younger ones, I might let them "learn" by just watching me make it for them. Either way, they get a flower bracelet at the end of it so they should be happy, right?

For the chain, I'm actually planning to get them to triple chain: foundation chain then back in single crochet and then back again in double. I've found a really simple flower pattern that only uses those three stitches so it should be doable. I'll definitely be starting the chains and the ring for the flower for them because sometimes even I have trouble with that and I've been doing this for years Not sure about the squares though as we are supposed to respect the 'garden' theme which is why I was going for the flowers.

I think the hardest thing will be showing them how to crochet into the chain, it's really fiddly for little fingers. Pheebe's idea of using the chain as a base yarn is good though.

What ages are they?

You coudl do a 'cheat' flower if they can crochet into the chain. Chain 11 then go back along the chain doing ss, 2dc, ss, 2dc, ss etc
Then you tie the start of the chain to the other end and pull, (very basic) flower!

If holding the yarn is tricky you could get those foam sheets, cut into 2 inch wide strips and punch holes round, then you can show them how to crochet round the edge.

Thanks QualityTime, I'm making a note of your flower pattern to be used ICE. In the pattern that I was thinking of using, the hardest but would probably be closing the chain to make a circle. After that, everything is crocheted through the centre of the circle or through a chain of ss so they should be ok.

Agewise, I talked to the organiser this weekend and there will be kids of all ages from babies up to around 10 or 11. We agreed that my workshop should be aimed at ages 6 and up (because there will also be pins, (round pointed) needles and scissors) which suits everyone because most of the other activities will be for the younger ones. Apparently there are also a lot of mums who want to come and have a go so I might have to plan for some more advanced models too...