Not everyone can be an artist but it wouldn’t hurt to encourage our children to be creative or at least do some crafts. Their creations are not going to win any awards or hang in any galleries but the real reward is the experience of making something by hand, and using their creativity and of having fun.
These tips can help to encourage their creativity and get kids to like being crafty.
1. Turn off the screens.
This does not mean being anti-Television or thinking that technology is evil. This is just a way of refocusing your child and probably you to do something at the start of the day other than turning on the television first thing in the morning.
This of course will require a lot of patience on your part since there will probably be a lot of whining. But what’s good about kids is that they will always find something else to fill their days and what better way to do this than go to the craft section of your home and let their creativity flow.
2. Clear off a large surface, where they can create.
Yes, the crafts area does not have to be a custom space or a desk where your kids can work. Your kitchen table or even the dining room table will do. You just have to quickly clean and clear out the tables and most importantly, be okay with the mess afterward.
The kids just need an area that they can spread out because being in a cramped space will make them want to give up quickly and might begin to beg for a movie again.
3. Free access to craft materials.
Keep some things out of reach like acrylic paints and permanent markers but allow some washable things to be stored where they can get to them. Also, fill your desk drawers with both of your things and theirs.
For the shelves line it up with baskets of twine, glitter, washi tape and buckets of every coloring instrument imaginable. Baskets of recyclables that your kids can often play with and use as props for toys can also be the basis of their craft projects.
They can use them to make pictures and patterns or as building blocks. The best thing about recyclables? They are absolutely free, and you’re doing the world a favor by not putting them into landfills.
4. Be okay with random.
If they feel like dragging every box in the garage up through the house and onto the back lawn to make a ‘giant maze’ that’s okay. Even if their ideas seem a bit far fetched to you it does no harm to let them try. What matters most is that they had fun, worked together, and used their creative thinking.
Get rid of the perfectionist in you. Do not scold them for “wasting” supplies, or jump in and “help” them. Giving them the freedom to create how they want to without a hovering, correcting parent is what makes creating fun.
With a little bit of advance planning, not giving in to the urge of nagging or interfering, your kids will start to love creating things.
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
