3 craft project to kick-start creativity.
Photo by Tim Mossholder from Pexels
As a parent, it’s important to give your children every advantage they can have so they become responsible and productive adults later in life. There have been studies and millions of articles that affirm the importance of early years in a child’s brain development. As babies develop, everything they feel, hear, touch, smell, and taste will be part of their initial learning experiences, which will play a key role in their future endeavors.
It is important to treat their every waking moment as an opportunity for learning so they form good habits that were taught to them. Aside from food, shelter, clothing, and basic education, children need a little bit more push to make them out-of-the-box thinkers. This is where creativity comes in, which will only serve to spur their fertile imaginations to come up with new ideas.
Creativity is a pathway for self-expression no matter how unique. Children who retain creative thinking grow up to become adults who are imaginative, and they have endless ways to solve problems. It cannot be reiterated enough that creativity is important, so if you are looking for ways for your child to unlock their potential, here are some craft projects to help kick-start it.
Explore textures with natural paintbrushes
This craft project incorporates the elements of nature as kids draw on their canvas using paintbrushes directly plucked from Mother Nature or, more specifically, the backyard or your garden. You’ll be needing all the stuff you use when you do normal painting minus the brushes for the paints. Allow your child to roam the greenery, and let them pick a number of objects like fallen sticks, stiff leaves, and many more so they can use those for the project.
Before anything else, set some ground rules if you have a particularly lovely flower field or have plants that are off-limits. If you find that the materials they picked are not stiff enough to be held for a small child, band them together using some rubber bands. This article will explain how this new art painting goes.
Cardboard tube papercraft
There are a lot of uses for cardboard tubes, so don’t throw them away. Do this project when you have enough saved to make a little town. According to this tutorial, you will need some paints, scissors, drawing materials, and some colorful paper like 5×7 cardstock or any other variant. It’s always a good idea to make crafts you can reuse for later, so thick paper is the way to go if you want your kids to play with their creations later.
Turn the tubes into little houses by decorating them with windows, putting a paper roof, and cutting out some doors you can open and close, and make your own little town. Allow the children to color their town in whichever way they like to, so make sure to provide a lot of paper options. If they are too young to use scissors, make sure to assist them to avoid injuries.
Make birdseed cookies
It’s an excellent idea to incorporate as many lessons as you can even when you’re doing art projects. Birdseed cookies are especially important during the cooler seasons, like the winter, for the birds outside foraging for food. This is also a good addition if you already have a bird feeder or a birdhouse outside.
For this project, you will need bird seeds, unflavored gelatin to help hold the cookie’s shape, water, corn syrup, cookie cutters, and some twine. Here is a good recipe you can follow.
Make sure to put in the straw before the mixture is set so your twine has something to anchor on. Once the mixture is done, tie it on a branch of a tree where you will have an unobstructed view from a distance so all of you can see the birds getting their fill of the birdseed cookie.
Buy art supplies in bulk
It is necessary to stock up on art supplies, toys, and even equipment if you plan to do craft projects in your home. Craft supplies are much cheaper when you buy them wholesale online; add that to the fact that you don’t have to run to the store whenever you run out of something simple such as coloring materials.
As your child sees the abundance of supplies, it would be an excellent idea to teach them how to properly use the tools given to them. You can also teach them how to conserve resources and properly care for them so they last for years.
What are your favorite craft projects you do with your children? In the comments section below, share how these help widen the kids’ creative horizon.