Arts and crafts are a great way to spend time with your children. One of the best things about this kind of shared activity is that you can help them to develop their own innate creative and artistic sensibilities. This is something that most children take to quite naturally, and there is definitely a lot to be gained from trying to develop their creative side as much as possible. It’s also a great bonding activity, as you and your child work on building something together. And sometimes, you will even end up creating something that you can get some real use out of, perhaps even something that would be expensive to buy.
It’s all well and good knowing the many benefits of crafts, but how are you suppose to get into it if you don’t know where to begin? As it happens, getting into crafts is relatively easy, so long as you are happy taking it fairly slow and steady to begin with. In this post, we are going to take a look at some of the things you might want to consider in order to get started with crafting with your children as soon as you like.
Is It Up Their Street?
Although you might reasonably assume that your children will enjoy arts and crafts, you can never be certain until you give it a go. But before you get started, you might want to consider whether it is really the kind of activity they are likely to enjoy. Not everyone does enjoy it, and there is no point in making them do something that they are not going to put their heart into. If you think it would be better to play sports together or read or some other activity entirely, then don’t be afraid to do that instead. That being said, many children benefit from crafting, and it is worth giving it a go if you are not entirely sure. You might be pleasantly surprised at how much they actually enjoy it anyway.
Thinking About Safety
Something that will likely be constantly at the forefront of your mind as a parent is keeping your children – and yourself – safe throughout the creation of your various pieces. There will be times when you will need to supervise some more difficult parts, perhaps because it requires the use of scissors or something similar, and you should be ready to keep an eye out for the sake of their safety. If you are thinking about safety from the start, then it is much more likely that you will be able to keep them safe, because you will be approaching it in such a way as to ensure that that happens.
There are a number of things you can do to ensure that you are always as safe as possible during your arts and crafts sessions. For a start, take care of the equipment you use, and make sure your child does not just have free reign over the toolbox. But you will also want to try and encourage good practices in them, as this will be the best possible way of keeping them as safe as possible. This is the kind of thing that can easily bleed over into other aspects of their life too, so there is definitely a lot of value in doing so.
As long as you are paying attention to keeping them safe, you will find that you are able to enjoy the crafting sessions much more, and without the constant nagging worry in the back of your head that says that something terrible is going to happen. That way, you can both be freed up mentally to enjoy it all the more, and you won’t need to stop the sessions short. Get the safety right, and you are definitely off to a good start.
Knowing Your Equipment
You might be surprised at how much equipment is required to really be able to make a lot of different things. You can go project by project, only picking up what you need each time – or if you prefer, you can instead grab a whole load of equipment that you might need at the start, and find a special place for them in the home. As mentioned earlier, it is generally a good idea to keep this stash of equipment somewhere where your kids won’t easily get to it. As long as you do that, you can put whatever you might need in there for use at a later time. So what kind of equipment are you likely to need for your arts and crafts sessions? The list can be fairly extensive, but certain items are likely to be an absolute must.
For example, it is almost certain you will want many different kinds of card and paper, scissors, glue, string, decorative stationery, and other things of that nature. You will also occasionally need something a little bigger, and which might need to be kept separately, such as Pyrosorb-S class 0 acoustic foam or larger pieces of wood and so on. It’s a good idea either way to draw up a list of projects you think you will be attempting, so that you at least have a rough idea as to what you might need for your crafts. Getting all the equipment together in this way might also help in getting your child excited for the crafts that lay ahead, and you could also get them involved in picking and choosing some of the more personalised and creative tools and equipment.
With a good set of equipment ready to use, you will be well on your way to getting truly set up to craft with your children. But there is still more that you might want to think about before you can really start getting down to it properly. Let’s take a look at what else you might need to think of before you can get crafting.
Setting Up A Space
Most parents would agree that it is highly beneficial to have a dedicated space in the home for the crafting sessions. If you occasionally need more space for your creations, you can of course just spread out over the floor or wherever you think is necessary. At certain times of the year, you might even find that the garden is a suitable spot. But in general, you will want to have a spot here you and your child can sit or kneel and make your crafty projects. There are certain characteristics which you will probably want from such a space, and they are worth looking into in a little more detail.
First of all, and most importantly, there must be room to spread out a little. You will also want to make sure that it is somewhere you don’t mind getting dirty – or that you can easily cover to protect it in case it does get dirty. It should be undisturbed, and preferably away from distractions such as a television. This is just for the enjoyment of the craft itself, as you want all of your attention to be on your creation rather than anything else.
If you don’t really have anywhere you can truly dedicate to your crafts, that is not a problem. You can get set up anywhere you like each time just by laying down some newspaper and getting out the relevant materials and equipment. It could be your kitchen table or anywhere at all, so long as you are happy with the space and you are able to both be comfortable working there. With a space sorted, you will probably be very close to feeling ready to get crafting on a regular basis. But it’s just worth quickly thinking about the kind of attitude that is likely to pay off before you start, so that you and your child can dive into it with the right frame of mind and get as much out of the whole experience as possible.
Attitude Is Everything
The way you approach your crafts will make a huge difference, so it’s a good idea to try and encourage a good attitude in yourself and your child. For a start, you should aim to enjoy the process as much as possible, and not be overly worried about results. Being fixated on results does not really do anything for you, except cause anxiety and stress when things don’t quite work out. Be prepared to fail a few times, especially with new projects of great difficulty, but also be persistent and you will find that you can create pretty much anything you like. It’s best to try and adopt a feeling of open exploration with your child – and in this way you can both enjoy the process together much more fully. With the right attitude, you will find that your crafts soon become enjoyable.
With all of the above taken care of, you will be in a good position to get fully started on crafts with your kids. Have fun!
This post has been contributed to help inspire my readers.
