Crafts for Kids…Important for Creativity
March 14, 2009 by Mary Emma Allen
Filed under Home & Living
“Mary, I wish I could do the crafty things you do,” a friend remarked when my daughter was young. “I’m not talented. I just watch TV when I’m not taking care of the boys.”
How sad, I thought, that this young mother of four boys didn’t feel she could pursue arts and crafts or anything creative. How sad that she couldn’t find activities to interest her…and teach them to her children.
Creativity was instinctive when I was growing up in a household without much money and before television. My siblings and I, with our mother’s encouragement, made our toys and dolls and games.
It seemed natural to include my daughter in the crafts I enjoyed, and quilt business I operated, when she was young. If her cousins and friends were around, they became involved, too. I had a 4-H club and found new arts and crafts projects for the youngsters. My daughter and I have continued this with her children, their cousins and friends.
Some crafty ideas with inexpensive materials:
- Fabric and mixed media collages
- Creating paper dolls and their clothing from magazines and catalogs
- Making fabric postcards
- Making mosaic pictures with buttons, beads, and/or grains.
- Scrapbooking and card making
- Looping potholders on a loom
- Painting fabric with special crayons
- Writing and sketching in journals
What types of crafts do your children enjoy?
Image: sxc.hu
