There are quite a few school programs these days that are teaching kids to crochet. I think that this is awesome. I was particularly touched by a story I read recently in the Mercury News about twelve-year-olds in the seventh grade class at a San Jose school who are crocheting baby blankets for newborns in needs.
Middle Schoolers Crocheting
There are lots of reasons that I think it’s great that these kids are crocheting. Some of those reasons are:
- Seventh grade is a super tough year so anything productive that these kids can get into is good by me!
- It teaches them a traditional craft that they might not otherwise learn.
- They are able to learn about the value of helping others and how you can do that with just what you can make with your own two hands.
- Crochet is terrific. Kids are terrific. Crocheting kids are terrific.
Helping Homeless Newborns
The kids are making blankets that are given to the Catholic Diocese of San Jose’s Layette Program. This is a program that distributes approximately one layette per day to the newborns born to women in need who are homeless or living in transitional housing. The blankets help both child and mother to be warm and feel loved. The program has been around for a long time and the San Jose school has been participating with crochet blanket donations since 2006.
One Kid Makes a Blanket Per Week
All of the donations by the kids are awesome but extra credit goes to Emily Cook who is making approximately one blanket per week. Although many of the kids in the class just learned to crochet, Cook actually learned way back in preschool. Great work Emily!
