Guide to Crafting with Children
Crafting with children should be as much fun for you as it is for them. Depending on the age of the child, a little preparation goes a long way to ensuring everyone enjoys crafting together. It’s a great way to spend quality time with your child, and helps them to learn about colour, design and - perhaps most importantly - tidying up afterwards! Crafting requires patience and concentration and should help your child develop these skills too. Try to resist the temptation to impose your own ideas about how things should look. Your role should be to guide them on a practical level and assist when asked.
Children’s Craft Sets
Specialist kits are a real boon when crafting with small children. They include everything you need plus pictures to show what can be achieved. By keeping a craft kit to hand you can make the most of those spontaneous crafting moments. Simply protect your work surface and your child’s clothes (and perhaps your own if it’s likely to get really messy) and away you go. It doesn’t have to be an elaborate project; it can be as simple as sitting with your child and painting or drawing.
Crafting Boxes
Older children tend to have accumulated a few crafty bits such as paint, paper and stickers. By keeping these together in a ‘crafting box’ they can be accessed quickly and easily. You might like to include some child-friendly glue, child safe scissors, sticky tape, glitter and colouring pencils to cater for a basic range of crafting activities. The older the child, the more likely it is you will be crafting alongside them, rather than being directly involved in what they are working on - the most important thing is having fun doing something you both enjoy. Many children love making cards because they are relatively fast to complete and several can be made in one sitting. It is useful to keep a few card blanks, or cardstock, in the crafting box in case they’re needed in a hurry. Not only will your child enjoy making them but friends and family will enjoy receiving them and will probably keep them long after the event for which they were made has passed.
Keep Clean
Crafting can be a messy business, for adults and children alike, so be sure to protect your work surface with a ‘messy’ mat and cover everyone’s clothes with aprons. When painting with small children it’s useful to prepare a bowl of warm soapy water beforehand so that little paint-covered hands can be washed before your house is redecorated! Or why not craft in the garden when it’s warm and dry outside. Above all, don’t forget to enjoy these precious times with your children.