wrote:

I also sometimes patched them, but I don't think that's popular anymore.

I do it anyway. Or let them go to school with little holes. Considering the
weird outfits some kids like to wear (many little girls, for instance, like to
wear crazy dress-up dresses to preschool), jeans with holes in the knees didn't
seem like a problem to me. But then I get secondhand clothes anyway.

The iron-on patches don't work well in my experience.

--Helen