Yarn Along - Wingspan

These came off the needles and  hooks quite some time ago, but as they were birthday gifts, they had to stay all hush-hush!   

The Wingspan was a 40th birthday gift for my friend Amy, who has promised to send me a photo (she lives in the UK) of her wearing it, but well, she's not very efficient in the 'sending of pictures department' so I thought  I'd share it with you minus the lovely model herself.  I added two little curtain rings, that I covered with yarn, to the ends as I thought it looked a bit unfinished as it was.

And these little slippers were for Amy's youngest daughter, Charlotte. They are the same model as I used for Tino's  but I added an ankle strap and a wee flower.

And whilst I'm on the subject of gifts, look what I got!!!!

Yes, one of Lori's Yarn Along Project Bags with some extra fun ribbon, a whale fridge magnet and a lovely card.   I love getting things in the mail.  It always amazes me that someone far away has put my name on something and then days or weeks later, it arrives at my house - how many people touched it, did it come by plane (in this case - yes I think so) train or automobile?

Thank you very much Lori

I'm currently reading Unconditional Parenting - Moving from Rewards and Punishments to Love and Reason (Alfie Kohn).  Kohn argues that conventional approaches to parenting (he doesn't like the word discipline) such as 'time-out' and 'positive reinforcement' are too conditional in that they teach children that they are loved only when they please us. And that the basic need that all children have is to be loved unconditionally.  Obviously we all love our children unconditionally but Kohn asks the reader to consider whether their words and actions might actually be implying the opposite.   He advises 'working with' rather than 'doing to' children, and places great emphasis on talking things through and discussing with kids to find possible solutions to problems - "A child's preferences can't always be accommodated but they can always be considered and they need never be dismissed out of hand".

I like this book a lot.  I know from previous Yarn Along post that some of you have read it, what did you think?  I imagine it isn't everyones cup of tea.  Just last week I read an article on Yahoo 'No Spank You: The harmful impact of physically disciplining your kids' (May 2) and whilst it didn't offer up any new arguments against physical punishment, what was very interesting, were the readers comments.  I scrolled down at least 20 of them and they were all of the 'Spare the rod, spoil the child' opinion.  

Linking up with Ginny for Yarn Along