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Favorite
Crafts To Do With Your Child
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Safer Child Favorite Crafts to Make
With Your Child
Activities usually don't have to be finished all at once.
If your child gets bored, stop the activity and resume it later. Make sure your child
stays well-hydrated, and try to not direct or correct everything he or she does. Set up
the activities so that if there's a mess, it's not a big deal.
An old pillowcase is an inexpensive way to make a
protective paint smock for your young child. Just cut slits on the sewn end for the head
and arms.
 | A string of thanks. Every Thanksgiving, we cut out thin
strips of paper and we write down on each strip something we are thankful for.
Then we make a chain with the strips, fitting each inside the other and
stapling them to hold them. We drape our paper chain around the house to
remind ourselves every day how lucky we are! |
|
Wool Dolls |
| 3-D paintings. We like to paint
pictures, and then turn them into 3-D art by adding with white glue several
strips of colorful fabric, pieces of wool, or leftover fabric used for weaving
loops. The resulting artwork is pretty cool. |
| Make picture frames using small branches
that you tie together at four corners. Have the child decorate a piece of
construction paper (pre-cut to fit the frame), using paint (perhaps for a
handprint), beads, glitter, fabric, buttons, etc. Then glue the frame to the
paper. The picture can be hung on the wall, or the child can write a family
member's name at the bottom and use it as a place setting. |
| Make a window collage with colored tissue paper and clear
contact paper. Have your child arrange pieces of tissue paper on the sticky side of some
contact paper, then cover the design with another sheet of contact paper. Tape the collage
onto a sunny window. |
| Make an ice sculpture (freeze water in an old milk carton
and allow older children to chisel with hammer and screwdriver). |
| Make paper chains -- or paper fans -- with construction
paper, scissors and tape. Decorate the paper before cutting or folding. |
| Tie-dye shirts, shorts, underwear, socks or scarves. |
| Allow your child to arrange fresh or fake flowers in a vase. |
| Start a diary for your child. Even younger children can
thrill to the idea that their words are being written down. You can make a special diary
by gluing a picture of your child on the front of a blank book or binder. |
| Decorate some hard-boiled eggs. When it's time to discard
the eggs, you can take the shells off, smash them up, and glue them onto paper for a
pretty picture. (Don't let your child eat raw eggs, or hard-boiled eggs that have been
decorated with anything other than food coloring and vinegar -- or eggs that have been
left out on the counter.) |
| Make greeting cards for relatives, using construction paper,
scissors, glue, sparkles, buttons, beads, markers -- whatever your child's heart desires. |
| Christmas Balls |
| Modeling Dough |
| Placemats |
| Graham Cracker House |
| Wind Chimes |
| What to Do With All That
Artwork |
| Fun in the Snow |
| Gelatin Jiggles |
| Make sock snowmen (fill old socks with leftover material,
sew together and decorate). |
| Make bubble pictures (pour bubble solution into a bowl, add
drops of paint and stir. Let your child blow bubbles onto paper to make a colorful
bubble-splatter picture!). |
| Glue candy hearts - or some other type of candy - all around
a painted wooden picture frame. Place a photo of your child inside and send to relatives
as a gift. |
| Make necklaces or bracelets with stretch string and beads or
colored pasta. |
| Paint wooden recipe boxes and put your favorite recipes
inside. |
| Older children can write a book. They can write poems or
stories and draw illustrations on several pages, then make a front and back cover and bind
the pages together. The book can have a theme, or just be a collection of favorite
writings. The pages can be laminated, and the back can be bound, glued, hole punched and
laced with ribbon, or bound with plastic comb binding. |
| Consider allowing older children to take apart broken
appliances and see if they can fix them (don't do this unless you're reconciled to never
getting the appliance back in working shape. Also, make sure all dangerous parts, such as
batteries, have been removed.). |
| Make a life-size painting or self-portrait with butcher
paper, newsprint, or two lengths of shelf paper taped together. Have the child lie down
and draw around him or her. Or simply allow the child to paint as desired. |
| Make a butterfly by folding a paper in half, placing your
hand on the fold and drawing around the fingers. Cut out (leaving the fold intact) and
decorate. |
| Keep a special craft box handy for your children to dive
into whenever they like. Keep it stocked with paper, scissors, glue, washable markers,
crayons, paints, pencils, erasers, beads, stencils, or whatever else you can think of. You
can keep an extra box of items that require adult supervision, such as glitter (children
LOVE glitter), staplers, or hole punchers. |
| Find large plastic needles at a craft store and allow your
preschoolers to "sew." Punch all along the edge of construction paper, and show
your child how to put yarn, ribbon, or string in the needle and then "sew" along
the holes. You can make hearts or other designs, and you can use this activity to make all
sorts of special gifts for relatives. |
| Fill a divided craft box with several types of household
items for building pictures: raisins, crushed pecans, coconut, potpourri, beads, licorice,
beans, chocolate chips (keep out of the hands of little ones to protect them from
choking). |
|
Sparkly Picture Frames. |
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