Spending time with your little ones can be a great way to bond and forge memories that will last a lifetime. Of course, it isn’t always so easy to come up with ideas. One excellent option to consider when you need activity is crafting. There are all kinds of simple, fun crafts you can tackle with your kids. Take a look at these creative ideas and find the perfect way to spend a bit of time with your children.
Little Airplanes
Creating crafts is always more fun for a child when they can play with the results of their work. While you might not be able to make complicated toys with your kids, you can definitely explore crafts that create entertainment and another fun activity. If you’ve got clothespins, crafting foam, and glue, you can make little airplanes that your little ones will love. Simply cut airplane wings out of the foam. You can take a look at pictures to get the general shape correct, but don’t worry too much about accuracy. The placement of the wings will help make the craft functional.
Once you’ve determined the right shapes and sizes of the foam wings, glue them to the clothespin. After they dry, you and your children can toss the planes around the house to see how well they fly. Have competitions to see who can throw their airplane the farthest and keep the fun going long after the craft has been completed. As a bonus, think about hanging the finished product from strings around your children’s rooms so that they have a fun piece of homemade decor in which they can take pride.
Fill Out Cards Together
Paper is always an excellent resource to have when you are looking to craft. From construction paper to tracing paper, there’s no shortage of fun with the right materials. If you are looking to take on a craft with your child and don’t want it to be too involved, consider filling out cards together. Making custom greeting cards is a simple activity that can produce some lovely results. Depending on the age of your children, you may need to think about what writing tools you use. Smaller children should stick with crayons instead of pencils with sharper points.
Ask your children for whom they would like to write a card. Greeting cards are always thoughtful especially when they hand them out to Dad as a Father’s Day gift, or add to the Mother’s Day gift ideas for Mum. Grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins are all great people to suggest. Have your little ones write whatever messages they’d like in the card. When you finish, you may want to think about mailing the cards to the people they’re meant for. This activity can be a fun and interesting way to teach your kids about sending mail and how much fun it can be to receive a letter the old-fashioned way.
Painted Flower Pots
A lot of crafts can be messy. No matter what age your children might be, activities involving paint and glue can be an invitation for trouble. Still, there are a lot of exciting ideas that you can explore that will not cause too much of a mess. One way to accomplish this is by painting flower pots. Simply purchase some basic ceramic pots and acrylic paint in bright colors. Go outside or find somewhere inside where you can lay down a tarp or newspapers for excessive paint drips.
Instead of painting these pots traditionally, you and your little ones will create works of art by pouring acrylic paint down the sides. Turn the pots upside down and cover any holes with tape. Start pouring the paint over the top and let it run down the sides. Eventually, gravity will help you create a beautiful piece of pottery art. Allow them to dry for several days and apply a spray coating if needed. Soon, you’ll have gorgeous pots you and your kids can use for interior or exterior plants.
Painting With Wheels
Another great way to incorporate paint into the process without getting it all over your home is by coming up with simple and creative ideas to use acrylics. Do your kids have a lot of toy cars and trucks around the house? If so, then you can transform these toy automobiles into tools for painting works of art. Pick a few cars that have well-defined wheels and roll the wheels through acrylic paint. Then, use the wheels to create cool patterns on a piece of paper. In no time, you’ll have awesome art to hang together on the fridge.
There are lots of other ways to get creative with paint. Do you have an old salad spinner taking up space in your kitchen? Grab some paper plates and acrylic paint, and you can turn that old salad device into a tool for creating awesome spin art. Using paint in a spinner with some paper plates can produce cool patterns and swirls that mimic fireworks. It is a great activity to do outside on a beautiful day, as the sun will help the paint dry a lot faster.
DIY Wands
Encouraging an active imagination in your kids can be a wonderful idea to help them use their minds creatively. It also helps with their childhood development. How? Your kid can make crafts like DIY wands that will take their games of pretend to the next level. All you need is some crafting foam, drinking straws, a stapler, ribbons, and glue. First, cut out some large shapes like stars from the foam and staple some ribbons to it. Next, take the shape and staple it securely to the straw. Be sure the foam is not too big, or else it will weigh down the straw.
After you’ve got your wand assembled, cut out a small version of the same shape, and glue it to the center of the foam wand. While regular glue can be a good fit, you may want to do this part yourself using a hot glue gun. It takes a little more time, but it will produce far better results. Remember never to allow your little ones to touch or go near a hot glue gun to avoid burns. Once the wands are done, your children can exercise their imaginations and pretend they are wizards or princesses.
Classic Ideas
Many crafts have been around since you were a child. You have seasonal crafts, like the ones you include in Halloween activities and more. What better way to spend time with your kids than by engaging with a familiar and timeless idea? The pinecone bird feeder, for example, is one that almost all kids and adults are aware of to some degree. This craft is a great way to teach your little ones about nature and feed some birds along the way. All you need are pine cones, peanut butter, birdseed, and ribbons. You can get your pinecones by taking a nice walk through nature with your children before crafting.
To begin, securely tie a ribbon through the tip of the pinecone where it will hang from later. Pour your bird feed into a tin tray or shallow cardboard box. Then, work with your kids to cover the outside of the pine cones with a layer of peanut butter using a dull-edged butter knife or spreader. Next, roll the feeders through the tray of seeds until they are totally coated. Once covered, take the cones outside and hang them high in the trees. Enjoy watching feathered friends visit for a snack with your family.
Super Simple Ideas
If you’re short on time or supplies and need a way to keep your kids engaged for a short window, there are some fantastic activities you can do. Creating an easy cherry blossom tree may be the perfect fit. All you need is tissue paper in shades of pink, some glue or tape, and a piece of poster board where you can draw. For this crafting activity, have your children crumple up the tissue paper into little balls as you draw a tree on the board. It doesn’t have to be a great tree; just the outline with some branches will work well.
When all the paper has been crumpled, glue or tape them to various points on the tree you’ve drawn. The finished product will look like a beautiful tree bursting with cherry blossoms. If you don’t have pink tissue paper, you can use any color and create the tree of your choice. This idea is an excellent crafting activity when you’re short on time and stuck inside for a bit during a rainy morning.
Garden Rocks
One final idea to consider is painting garden rocks. Take some large, smooth stones and acrylic paint and sit in an area outside with your kids. Paint them however you like, though it may be fun to find a theme or paint images of nature. When the paint dries, make a game out of placing the painted rocks around the garden with your kids. Then, whenever they go outside, they’ll be able to look at their creations hidden amidst the flowers. Crafting is a wonderful and simple way for you to spend time with your children and engage in some creative practices. Whether you decide to paint stones, create airplanes, or fill out custom greeting cards, the time you share together will be what truly matters most.
You’ll never run out of things to do with the little ones and it’s a good time to practice organisation and productivity for the fam.
