Did you Know that Doing A Fall Craft with Children can Add Many Side Benefits?
Crafts as in generally done, or crafts with kids has never been touted as an activity that is supposed to do more than keep kids busy, give them some fun and as some say add creativity to a child’s life.
Kids crafts however should do more than that, much more, actually.
Kids crafts, done well, in an educational crafts approach, adds 4 benefits to the activity.
It can take them into the academic realm by allowing them to think through problems.
It can make them take initiative really make them creative and raise their self esteem.
I can show you how to get kids to make a crafts, in this case a fall crafts that will encompass all of the benefits above.
If you take a look online, the majority of the crafts for kids are made up by adults.
Adults think of a cute idea, create it, get the materials, and have the children follow in step by step fashion.This creates what we call “copycat crafts”.
Remember though, in order for the children to indeed benefit from the skills above, they need to be involved in actually doing the projects themselves without the adults constant supervision.
Since we don’t want to give the children total freedom which leads to chaos, we give them a happy medium.
As you are setting up a crafts project for kids, the first thing you should have in mind is what is the basic goal of this crafts. Will it be a fall scene, winter scene? Etc. Then, start thinking of the materials you can give the children that will suggest Fall. Imagine a basket full of fall vegetables. Stunning, rural fall foliage.
Two very important or helpful things in this equation are Number one:To gather a lot of different pictures to hang up so that the children can get inspiration from these pictures and pick parts of the pictures that they want use in their craft.
As most crafts projects do well with a focal point, it would be a good idea for you to prepare some choices that the kids can use for their focal points.
Choosing many widths and lengths of tree trunks as the focal point for a fall picture would make lot of sense in this case.
If you look at this Fall craft collage I give step by sep instruction on how to do a fall craft like this.
What happens is, children are free to think on their own without adult interference.
Just because kids are given the freedom to begin projects with minimal restriction is exactly what teaches them initiative taking
Their creativity, of course blooms because they are being allowed to create what they like.
Imagine how much of a self esteem booster this is.
If you are an early childhood teacher you may find another interesting crafts project in this style called Fall projects for the preschool classroom.
The difference in what this type of crafts, or as I call it educational arts and crafts does for children is indescribable.
Learn 4 ways to turn holiday crafts with kids into a real learning experience.
When it comes to activities that adults do with kids, crafts is probably at the very top.
Homeschoolers, stay at home moms, early childhood teachers, grandparents
feel that since children usually love pasting and cutting, then crafts is a great way to spend time with each other. This is often done around holiday tiem
As a time filling activity, crafts is one of the best, as children love to mess and glue and color and can do so for long periods of time.
It’s when adults expectations of what young children can actually create in crafts collides with reality, that problems arise. They then feel that the only way children can create crafts is by copying an adults model. I call this “copycat crafts”.
If you are a real traditional sort and have no problem with creating robots out of your children then go right ahead and keep doing these kinds of crafts. There are books and websites that are full of them
and I am sure there will be no difficulty finding tons of crafts online for kids to copy.
First listen, however, to a short explanation of the detriments of copycat crafts. You can also go download a free report that will help you with all kid crafts by explaining to you in detail the pros and cons of copycat crafts and educational crafts.
Robots just follow directions without thinking. So that is what happens to children who don’t think when making projects, but just follow directions. Copycat crafts is detrimental to your children and I would like to explain why that is.
Art should NOT just be to commemorate holidays. It should be an enriching experience for children and they should be gaining all sorts of wonderful skills from it.
Doing crafts the correct way gives children an opportunity to use their brains by solving problems, learning greater independence and developing a greater self esteem.
Fine motor coordination is best honed by doing lots of tradtional arts and crafts is what many will tell you. what they don’t realize though is there are not too many other benefits.
I have a great post for you that gives a great example of creativity in art by showing you how children can make a crafts activity of flowers using both methods.
Why is it then that adults tend to only get busy with crafts around holiday time.
So where do we go from here?
If you like the idea of adding more creativity to kids crafts you can check out Educational arts and crafts which will give you lots of crafts for kids to do that are truly educational.
If you want to try doing educational crafts on your own, however, and not copycat crafts then there 4 points to keep in mind when choosing a crafts for your children.
1. Does this activity allow for any problem solving?
2.Will making this project allow for any thinking skills?
3. Where’s the creativity here?
4.Would a child feel a sense of accomplishment after doing this craft?
If you keep these thoughts in mind when choosing crafts then not only will you be commemorating the holidays and spending quality time with your children but they also will be gaining vital skills