Kids Craft Projects

Crafting with kids: Why creating with your little ones is important

For certain parents, coming up with smart craft ideas to do with their kids is second nature. For others (ahem, cough), it can be intimidating, and we wind up handing over a box of crayons and some paper and calling it a day. To help us overcome our insecurities, we contacted the lovely and helpful Jennifer Casa, author of "Teach Yourself Visually: Crafting with Kids." Read on for her thoughts on the importance artistic expression and trying new things.</p><p> Question: Other than the obvious - markers, paper, tape - what are some nice things to have around the home to make crafting with kids a bit easier and more fun for everyone involved?</p><p> Answer: If you are looking to stock a craft drawer or bin, I would suggest you start small with a few of the basics. A good-quality watercolor set, as well as crayons or colored pencils, will have everyone coloring in a variety of mediums. Glue and glue sticks inspire all sorts of creativity in kids, and make sure to have age-appropriate scissors. Paper punches are great, even a simple single-hole punch can be a lot of fun when crafting with kids. If you want a few more goodies, there's glitter and googly eyes and pompoms and pipe cleaners. There is a lot of good stuff out there, but I honestly believe less is more. If your budget allows, let each child choose one new supply to add to your family's crafting stash. Keep it simple and magic will happen.</p><p> Q: Without spending money at a crafts store, are there things lying around the average home that can be turned into a doable art project?</p><p> A: Most people have plenty of items around the house that can be reinterpreted as materials for arts and crafts, and you needn't look any further than the recycling bin. In my book, "Teach Yourself Visually: Crafting with Kids," we transform cardboard tubes from paper towels and toilet paper into bowling pins and kaleidoscopes. Newspaper is great for papier-mche, painting or as a stuffing material. Plastic bottles and jars can be made into snow globes, and takeout containers into boats or spaceships. Cardboard from milk cartons and cereal boxes can be taken apart and reused for building new projects. Kids have such incredible imaginations, so let them choose their materials and follow their lead.</p><p> Q: What is it about doing a craft with your children that you think makes it a worthwhile activity? Of course, besides the obvious: It's fun.</p><p> A: Crafting with your children is about sharing time with one another, listening to them and working together on something that interests them. It's about nurturing their creative spirits, encouraging them to explore, fostering their independence and learning from one another. You will all cherish these memories.</p><p> Q: What would you say to parents who are not artistically inclined and get easily intimidated by craft projects? Any advice?</p><p> A: Crafting with kids is supposed to be fun! So relax, follow their lead and set aside any notions about what you think something is supposed to look like when you are done. Most of the projects in my book were created so that you and your kids can turn it into whatever you want it to be. Personalize things, use an idea you see in a book or magazine as a springboard for something new and fabulous. This is not a test! Enjoy the process of making things together, get a little messy and laugh a lot. Your kids are watching you all the time, so dive in and try new things along with them. You may surprise yourself!</p><p> Q: Are there trends when it comes to kids' arts and crafts? What's new and different that you're starting to see?</p><p> A: I've been seeing more and more kids' craft projects using recycled materials, and I continue to be impressed by what can be done with household items that would have otherwise been thrown away. There are also a lot of great new craft supplies and kits out there, and it's a lot of fun to experiment and try something new together.</p><p> Q: In our home we are all about the basics - paint/coloring, paper, glue, scissors - and I am dazzled on a daily basis by what our kids come up with. They inspire me to experiment, and we all have fun along the way. I truly hope that everyone can experience that with their own kids.</p><p> For inspiring craft ideas, pick up a copy of Jennifer Casa's book and visit her website at http://jchandmade.typepad.com/ .</p><p> Andrea Pyros lives in New York's Hudson Valley, where she raises her two kids and writes for www.Deals.com - your easy-to-remember source for the best online deals, sales and coupons.

Learning Through Projects: an Interview with Kathreen Ricketson ...

You may know Kathreen Ricketson as the editor of the Australia-based craft blog Whipup . She's also been busy self-publishing Action Packs , which are digital collections of making and learning projects for kids. Action Packs incorporate a little crafting, a little cooking, some nature exploration, a little building and tinkering - and each issue is centered around just a few materials, so kids can explore them deeply.

I talked with Kathreen about how she arrived at this publishing idea, and how kids are responding to these kinds of learning projects.

What got you interested in self-publishing for children? And how did you arrive at the Action Pack format?

I have a couple of children - Otilijao is 11 and Orlando is 8, a boy and girl - both very creative in different ways, both interested in making stuff, experimenting and cooking, and both very active with a lot of energy to burn. Because we don't watch TV, and the school they go to doesn't believe in homework (thank goodness), we have very creative afternoons and weekends together. That time is taken up more and more with activities that they are interested in, and because they love to experiment, many of the concepts come from them rather than from me. So I become their facilitator - and they my inspiration.

My interest in self-publishing has always been at the back of my mind, I have experience in magazine publishing, website publishing, and book publishing (two quilting books with Chronicle - second one coming out later in the year - and a series of four kids craft books with Australian publisher Hardie Grant). The next frontier seemed to be self publishing. After quitting my day job to be a freelance stay-at-home writer/maker/blogger, I had at the back of my mind that in between traditionally-published book projects, I would try my hand at self publishing. At first I thought this might be in the form of sewing patterns or quilting designs or even blogging advice. But I couldn't quite find my mojo with these topics. Instead, as I was experimenting and creating with my kids, thinking up ideas, and documenting and research our process, I began to see a glimmer of an idea appear.

It all seemed to come together - my experience in publishing, my love of crafting and cooking, my husband's love of science and the natural world, my kids' creativity and endless thirst for knowledge, our family's growing interest in a back-to-basics childhood, wanting my kids to learn to love and appreciate nature and to nurture their growing independence, and our increasing dislike of the commercialisation of childhood - all of this led us to create the Action Packs.

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