Spending time with your child crafting and creating should be an enjoyable experience for both you and your child. Here are some tips to make craft time stress free and fun:
: How to Make Craft Time Engaging and Fun1. Set up a dedicated space: Designate a specific area for crafting, whether it’s a corner of a room or one end of the kitchen table. Having a designated space helps create a sense of anticipation and allows for easy access to materials.
2. Organise materials: Keep craft supplies organised and easily accessible. Use small jars or pots to store supplies such as paints, brushes, beads, and glue. Having a well-organised setup saves time and keeps the focus on creativity.
3. Provide choices: Allow your child to choose their craft activity and materials within a reasonable range. Offering choices empowers children and helps them develop decision-making skills.
4. Encourage creativity: Avoid micromanaging or dictating the outcome of the craft. Instead, encourage your child to think creatively and explore different possibilities. Let them experiment with colours, textures, and techniques.
5. Always remember to display your work of art either on a wall in the kitchen or perhaps create a gallery, and your child can enjoy adding their masterpieces. This gives your child a sense of achievement and makes them feel proud of what they have created.
Children’s Craft Activities
- Paper crafting
- Drawing and painting
- Colouring in
- Sewing
- Collaging with a variety of materials
- Cutting and pasting
- Paper Mache modelling
- Modelling with home made play-doh
- Baking
Craft Play Materials
Encouraging creativity with your child doesn’t need to be expensive, but it is important to have some basic materials at hand so your children can enjoy creative play at any time. Items like crayons, paints, coloured paper, scissors, and glue are the basics for children’s craft activities. In our family, our favourites are often household objects such as old newspapers, paper cups, paper plates, cupcake liners, and any recyclables from the recycling bin.
If you and your child want to use household recycling materials, we have a collection of ready made craft kits for children which enables you to turn household recyclables into art. With the Recycleme craft gift sets, you can create a pinball machine, jewellery, boats, animals, rockets and much more.
To help keep the cost of craft time down, we have come up with our favourite homemade recipes and methods for some essential crafting materials.
Homemade Play-Doh Recipe
- 1 cup plain flour
- 1/4 cup table salt, ( blend it to a powder first)
- 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1/2 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup boiling water
- Food colouring (use about 15-20 drops for bold colours and half for pastels)
Method for Making Play-Doh
1. Whisk together flour, salt, and cream of tartar in a plastic bowl.
2. Make a well in the centre of the bowl and add vegetable oil, boiling water and food colouring.
3. Using a rubber spatula, mix until the ingredients form a dough. Add a little bit more flour if needed. Your dough should now be ready for moulding.
Homemade Glue Recipe
Ingredients for homemade glue
- 1 cup cornflour
- 1 tablespoon of white vinegar
- 2 teaspoons of salt
- 4 cups of hot water
Place all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well with a whisk.
Transfer ingredients to a pan and place on medium to high heat, and bring to the boil. The mixture will start to thicken and turn translucent within a minute of boiling. Once this happens, remove from the heat to cool and when cooled, you are ready to use the glue, which is ideal for any paper crafts.
The glue can be stored in an air-tight container for up to 3 months.
As you can see, craft time can be an enjoyable experience for you all as the activities can be wide and varied.
If this all sounds like too much hard work and you are looking for something easier and less set up time. Why not try one of our craft kits for children, which includes everything you need to have some creative fun with your children? We have most activities covered, from first sewing kits, finger art sets, cut and pasting activity kits and paper craft kits. All our craft sets for children make brilliant screen-free activities which will provide your children with numerous benefits in their overall development and well-being. By engaging in screen-free play, kids have the opportunity to develop their creativity, imagination, and problem-solving skills.
So why wait? Start browsing our range of craft gifts for children. Free delivery on all orders over £50
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