Kids craft ideas for non-crafty mums
By: sharon
For some mums, coming up with craft ideas for their kids can be highly stressful. They think, ’I’m not creative enough!’ or, ’I’m not crafty at all’. If this is you, read on to gain more confidence about setting up kids’ craft activities.
First I’d like to share a story about a Playgroup my eldest daughter and I used to attend (I’d like to mention here that I do love Playgroup). Every week we had a new kids’ craft activity: Heavily structured work with the intent that 0-5 year olds would follow instructions and it’d ‘look like’ something.
Sometimes child-friendly crafts were given, but mostly they were overly-elaborate and more about the mothers’ needs to out-do each other. The kids would wander off to play as their mums vigilantly glued sequins, poked pipe cleaners strategically and sucked all the fun out of it.
With each week, as much I loved most of the mums, I became more and more annoyed. I pushed my chair away from the table to let my daughter attempt using scissors herself, only helping when asked. I pushed my chair forward swiftly when other mums told her she was ‘doing it wrong’ because she pasted the ‘wrong’ colour in the ‘wrong’ place in the fish scene. ‘That’s fine,’ I interrupted. ’It’s her craft, she’ll do it her way.’
You may be wondering how a story like this could make you more confident. You’ll see. The following steps will ensure that any craft activity you give your kids will be fun, rewarding and educational.
‘In your head, in your head…’
The Cranberries had it right. Your level of skill with kids’ craft is completely irrelevant. Your perceived lack of inspiration is no barrier to your abilities here. In short, your self-doubt is all in your head. Once your child gets going, the outside world melts away. They decide what will happen next. As mums, we’re only needed when they say so. Grown-up craft whizzes need not apply.
Trust the process
As your child uses glue for the first time, they will dump a wad in the middle of the paper and scrub it with the brush until the paper is sopping and falling apart. A large hole forms in the middle. Your child will pick it up and the paper will sag. The glue will splatter everywhere.
Some parents feel if their kid’s craft ends up this way it’s a failure. The reverse is true. Your child is learning bucket loads. They’re learning about the structure of paper, and how it reacts to liquid and weight. They’re learning about quantity and pressure. They’re enjoying the simple actions of applying glue to a brush and gliding it across paper. Children learn by doing. Of course, this product doesn’t ‘look like’ anything more than a hot mess to most grown-ups. But to children, it’s the process of applying the glue that is fun.
Provide open-ended materials
Open-ended play is the idea that a material provides endless possibilities for children. It’s not a flippin’ fish stencil that the children have to keep within the lines of and use specific colours to get it ‘right’. It’s the use of objects which children can be inspired by.
You could give a blob of playdough to a group of four-year old children. One child might make a train. Another – a pretty flower. If you look around the table, you could see a snake, even a simple blob. This is the guts of open-ended play. The child transfers her or his own ideas and interests onto the material.
So instead of painstakingly cutting up egg cartons, poking holes at the front for the antennae in advance, and pre-cutting eyes for your children to stick on for the perfect caterpillar, just plonk the craft materials in front of your kids and watch the magic unfold.
Open ended kids’ craft materials include, but are not limited to:
⁃ paint
⁃ playdough
⁃ glue
⁃ scissors (if you feel your child is old enough)
⁃ clean, recycled junk
⁃ glitter
⁃ food
⁃ paper
⁃ kitchen utensils
⁃ scraps of fabric
⁃ ribbons
⁃ and more…
Be proud
See the perfection in your child’s imperfection. Enjoy their crooked, soggy, messy creations. They did this all by themselves! Say you love what they’ve done and how proud you are. Resist the urge to ask, ‘what is it?’ Instead try, ‘tell me about your painting/work’. Talk about the colours and materials used, and tell them you can see they had fun making it. There’s no wrong way. Your child’s way is the right way.
The bottom line is, I think somewhere along the way we’ve forgotten what our role is as parents when it comes to kids’ craft. It’s not our job to ensure our kid makes the neatest, prettiest, most impressive project. Allowing our children to have a go and make a mess, is what our job is. Provide the tools for fun, then sit back and let your children glean what they need from the materials. Also, if your child is a bit fussy about mess, read clean craft ideas for kids or art for children who hate mess to get a few more useful tips.
Please, don’t stress! You are great at coming up with kids’ craft ideas!
Not a member of the Kleenex Mums community yet? You can sign up here.
sharon
A qualified childcare worker turned stay-at-home mum of three, Sharon is passionate about fostering creativity and self-expression in children. She wants mothers to see themselves as more than the invisible lady that everyone dumps their bags and dirty clothes on. She writes the blog, Hear Mum Roar.
Showing 18 comments
That sounds so awesome! Please let us know how it goes and if it helps her to wear it more!
I love that idea, Bduck! I mean really, you never have too many pillowcases when they're little anyway! haha
That's one thing I love about this approach, Nettegoddess: you don't have to have any skills in particular, just put the materials in front of them, they know what to do already. It can take loads of pressure off the parent.
It truly is fun to sit back and watch what comes out of their imaginations, isn't it?
I think we all are, Melissa:) And if we do say it, we shouldn't beat ourselves up about it either, lol! I remember one kid who always drew a blue rectangle which was a swimming pool, and trying to have a convo about it was a huge challenge LOL.
You've inspired me! My three year old is beginning to refuse her hat when ever we got out into the sunshine except if she is wearing my hat. I just picked up a white version of my hat and we'll get the fabric paints out tomorrow, she can personalise it...however she likes:))
Another suggestion is kids creating their own pillowcases. Get some cheap pillowcases from kmart etc and some fabric markers from spotlight and let the kids draw on them until their hearts content.
These are great ideas Sharon - thankyou! I am so far from being crafty, it is something that creates feelings of loathing, but I know I am going to have to bite the crafty bullet at some point with my son. Fortunately, anything he creates will be better than my best craft work.
I love that you've dissected it in this way, I think some parents do really need to understand it's about the child individually not if it's better than the group collectively! I'm a child-care worker and most art activities we are taught to do are open-ended. That's not to say that we don't do activities that aren't, but usually these are for Mothers day gifts and Christmas where they are giving a finished product to a loved one.
I think your description goes along with the step back and look at how much fun your child is having - art sometimes allows them to get dirty and be creative. Step down to see things at their eyes and the fun never stops!!
Melissa, it definitely does draw a deeper level of conversation out of your child:)
Elise, I fully agree
As they say: "It's all about the process and not the product".
I love the point about resisting the urge to ask, ‘what is it?’ I am often guilty of this, even though I know that my son only ever draws or creates spider webs or ghosts! Asking your kids to tell you about their painting or work is also much more empowering for them and can lead to some rather sweet conversations too.
It really is a beautiful thing, isn't it, Nicole? I think that's why Playschool is so popular, because the presenters just slap it together and in a child's eyes, it's completely brilliant.
I love open ended craft ideas. I have helped run the school playgroup and without a doubt the most popular activity was when I just bought in a big box of recylced materials, scissors and masking tape. The kids worked (not the adults!) for ages making all sorts of things. There were no two items alike and it was wonderful to watcth them express themselves.
I so agree:)
Love this Sharon! I often catch myself when I interfere unasked. As my 9-year-old daughter says, "There are no mistakes in art." Love it!
I agree, Sarah. My ten year old daughter is more interested in more structured arts and crafts, because she's keen to learn new skills such as crochet, knitting, etc.
LOVED this post. It's a good reminder to unclench when starting craft with little ones and yes, it needs to be an open ended process rather than overly constructed. At least, at the beginning.