Posts Tagged ‘crafts’

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The merits of arts and crafts for children

Sunday, February 14th, 2010

The merits of arts and crafts such as drawing and coloring  for kids are regularly argued by child development experts, educators and parents alike… especially so for the real impact they have on child development. However, it is difficult to argue with the top three reasons why we should all encourage the children in our care to  take part in arts and crafts.

Creativity – If you were to ask a cross section of individuals what is the first personality characteristic that arts and crafts will develop in a young child – most would answer ‘creativity’. And they are  correct.Everyone has natural talents & skills and it is certainly possible to improve and boost them… even if you only have a tiny amount of natural talent. Creativity enables your child to try out and profit from new ideas, options and alternatives in a future career. Kids learn to do things in new ways and literally profiting from thinking “out of the box”.

Perseverance -  Perseverance is  perhaps the single most important quality for any successful business person, sportsman, professional or  individual.  In fact, most well-known breakthroughs in life have been attributed to perseverance alone. Arts and crafts improve everyone’s level of perseverance.For instance, children learn to keep trying until they accomplish the task, be it a sculpture or a coloring in sheet.If something unexpected goes wrong… they are encouraged to persist by trying new ways and means and the pay-off is a wonderful piece of art that they have created.

Concentration – Similar to having perseverance, developing concentration is another quality well-worth having as an individual.Drawing, colouring, sculpting clay or aluminium foil, painting and even doodling will definitely teach your child to focus on one specific task at hand… ignoring other distractions. In a nutshell, their overall concentration will definitely improve.

Even when very young, children can draw and color – so give them blank pieces of paper or coloring in sheets so that they can scribble to their hearts content whilst also improving their dexterity and fine motor skills.

For example at sites like Spiderman Coloring you’ll find free Spiderman coloring as well as coloring pages, funny pics and more.

Little girls on the other hand tend to prefer images of fairies and princesses – however, favorite characters such as those from Disney movies  are also hits.

Give your child several opportunities to experience being creative, concentrating and perservering through the fun medium of arts and crafts. Provide them with materials as well as resources and the occasional canvas so that they can be creative and feel pride in what they create. 

 


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Is crafts something that you do with your children? Learn the correct way to give kids crafts

Saturday, November 28th, 2009

The concept that kids crafts is, or should be beneficial for children is not a new one. Traditional educators have long touted the direction following and fine motor development skills that arts and crafts gives to children.

The bottom line is however, that these type of crafts have not been proven to be any good at teaching direction followng. As a matter of fact, crafts like this does great damage to children’s self esteem and other skills.

Many of us already know why we as parents and educators like to give children arts and crafts.

We are spending special time with our children doing things they love.
It gives the children an outlet for their creativity.
It keeps them engaged.
It gives teachers a way to have children remember things they learned.
Helps the kids connect with different holidays.

Believe it or not, there’s a great way of doing crafts that picks up the level a notch or two. It is a method of doing arts and crafts with children that raises their confidence and self-esteem, gives them thinking and problem solving skills and skyrockets their creativity.

I call this, Educational arts and crafts.

There are a few very basic underlying concepts about educational arts and crafts.

All adults working with children should be aware of what children are capable of at various ages and levels. 
Therfor, kids measuring sticks cannot be the same ones used by adults. Educators that know about child development know that kids do not reach adults understanding, so they don’t expect them to create like adults.
•    Having children copy an adult’s idea or model is not beneficial but detrimental for many reasons.

Good arts and crafts project should therefor, address the following points.

1.    The projects should help the children develop a good self-esteem.
2.Art or crafts are great venues for kids to use their thinking and problem solving skills.
3.    Choices should be available which leads to initiative taking.
4.    Freedom to decide HOW to decorate helps develop a sense of autonomy and independence.
5.    Creativity skyrockets when children decide what to create.

In Educational Arts and Crafts the children incorporate all of the above skills while traditional, copycat, arts and undermines the same.

The meaning of educational is not only fact accumulation and in this case, it certainly does not mean that kids are gathering fact while doing art. It means that they are receiving skills of tremendous educational benefit.

Children who do lots of copying adults crafts, end up feeling poorly about themselves and even more about their artistic abilities. They are usually the children who grow into the adults who feel “they cannot draw a straight line”.

They feel that there is no faith in them from the adults to make art on their own. Little by little their confidence gets ruined which is what happens if they are expected to only follow robotic adult directions.This all starts in the beiginning when giviing toddler crafts to young ones and continues on into the later years.

Below are some of the many terrific benefits inherent in educational art.

    Children feel great about themselves as they get to create their own projects.
The craft actually looks like something to the adult and the child.
Creativity is greatly sparked in the kids.
    Thinking, problem solving skills and initiative are used.
    Self-esteem and initiative are encouraged which spills over into other areas.

So why not get started in giving the children crafts that they do on their own, that are educational and stop giving your kids crafts that copy other adults work.You can check out some educational arts and crafts for kids in an e book form that closely follows this method.


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Recipes for school holiday fun!

Tuesday, July 14th, 2009

Here are a dozen play-time ‘recipes’ to help keep your children entertained during the school holidays. Learn how to make homemade goop, papier mâché, cinnamon ornaments, soap crayons and much more. When the kids say, “I’m bored!”, print off this article and stick it to your fridge – it will be one of your best weapons against the ‘boredom’ gremlins!

Washable window paints
A selection of tempera paints (powdered or premixed)
Clear dishwashing liquid
Mix powdered paints with dishwashing liquid until they resemble house paint. Line the window sashes with masking tape and spread newspaper under the window area to protect flooring. To erase paint or touch up mistakes just wipe paint away with a dry paper towel.

Home-made coloring books

Go online and download a dozen or so coloring book pages and collate them into a coloring book. Put this aside for rainy days or for long car/train/plane journeys. Little boys love images of cars and trucks while little girls prefer coloring book pictures of fairytales and princesses. At sites like Pokemon Coloring Pages you’ll find many Pokemon colour in

Cinnamon ornaments
3/4-1 cup applesauce
1 (4.12-oz.) bottle of ground cinnamon
Mix applesauce with cinnamon to form a stiff dough. Roll out to 5mm thickness. Cut out a shape with the cookie cutter and make a hole for the ribbon using the end of a drinking straw. Carefully put aside to dry for several days – turning occasionally. This recipe makes 12 sweet smelling ornaments/drawer scenters.

Goop

2 packets of cornflour
2 cups of water
Several drops of food colouring

Place newspaper or plastic sheets on your work surface. Mix all these ingredients in a large bowl. Children love goop’s squishy consistency. You can also use coloured or black paper to make goop paintings if you wish. To remove goop from carpets, allow it to dry, then brush or vacuum. The great thing about goop is that it may be re-used after it has dried out. Crumble it to a powder then restore it to the original consistency by adding water a tablespoonful at a time.

Funny putty
2 tablespoons of white glue
1 tablespoon of liquid starch
Food colouring
Mix glue and desired food colour. Pour starch over top. Swish so that all the glue is covered. Let set 5 minutes. Squeeze off extra starch and knead until mixed.

Bubbles
1 cup water
1/2 teaspoon of sugar
1 teaspoon of glycerine
2 tablespoons of liquid dish soap
Mix water, glycerine and soap. Pour in sugar. Add food colouring if desired.

Papier mâché

1 cup flour
1 cup warm water
1/2 inch strips of newspaper
Balloon/s

In a large bowl, mix flour and water – add more flour is mixture is too sloppy (dripping). Place newspaper strips into mixture, then smooth onto blown up balloon. Cover the balloon completely twice, letting it dry in between layers. Do not cover the balloon’s knot. Dry in a warm place for 2-3 days then hold the knot and pop the balloon with a pin. Paint, glitter and decorate the balloon as is or cut in half so you have a bowl/hat shape to embellish.

Modelling/play dough
2 cups flour
1 cup salt
water
food colouring

Mix the ingredients and knead to a dough consistency. To speed up the drying process, place the dough artwork in the oven on a low heat.

Soap crayons

1 3/4 cups of soap flakes

50 drops food colouring
1/4 cup water

Mix water and soap flakes together. Add food colouring and put mixture into an ice cube tray. When hardened, pop the ‘ice cubes’ out. These soap crayons are fun to write with on the tub and tiles during bath time. If grouting stains, spray with a weak solution of bleach.

Sand dye

Fine sand

Water

Food colouring

Paper cups

Plastic spoons

Fill paper cups half full with sand. Next, add water to cups to completely cover sand. Add food colouring until you get the desired colour. Stir with plastic spoon and let set for 15 minutes. Pour off water, spoon sand onto paper towels and spread the sand out to dry. Use sand to make pictures (spread glue on paper and sprinkle sand on top) or to fill pretty bottles in layers.

Cornstarch Art/Finger-paint

3 tablespoons of cornstarch

1/4 cup cold water

2 drops of dishwashing liquid

1 cup boiling water

Food colouring

Combine cornstarch and cold water – stir until smooth. Add dishwashing liquid. Pour boiling water into the bowl and stir until the mixture thickens. Add food colouring and let cool. Use as you would finger paint.

Puffy Paint

Flour

Salt

Water

Tempera paint

Mix equal parts of flour, salt and water in a bowl. Add a small amount of tempera paint to the mixture and pour into a small plastic squeezy bottle. Repeat the procedure making as many colours as you wish. Squeeze onto heavy paper or cardboard to make designs. Mixture will harden into puffy shapes.

Colourful Salt

1/2 cup salt

5 to 6 drops of food colouring

Add food colouring to salt. Stir well. Cook in the microwave for around 1-2 minutes or spread on waxed paper and let the salt air dry. Store in an airtight container and use as you would glitter.


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