First, lay aside perfectionism. Limiting yourself into believing there is only one right way to create an object will makes every decision on which craft to tackle harder on both you and the children you’re in charge of. Believe me children will have their own ways of doing things, regardless of any directions you give them, and therein lies a large part of their development. As long as you’ve taken account of their age and skill level your choice will be sufficient.

Next, consider your budget. When choosing a craft idea for kid programs, you need to be aware that some of them are expensive. Prepackaged kits to make a fun foam picture frame or a craft stick cross are affordable for a few kids, but if you are needing to do a craft with a lot of kids, these kits might cost too much. It’s often easy to do almost exactly the same project by just looking at the craft kit components and buying the same materials in bulk at the discount store. You may have to do some preparation, like cutting out shapes ahead of time, or at least making cardboard patterns for the kids to use in cutting out their own. The savings will be worth it, however.

Another consideration is this – boys and girls have different likes when it comes to craft activities, especially once they’ve passed the age of four years. If the craft seems a little girly, don’t attempt to gain your boys’ attention. Stick with lace-up billfolds, dinosaur related artwork or Indian artifacts. Girls will like beads, cookie decoration, and anything that is pink or purple. For a craft idea for both sexes, keep it on the boyish side and add some girly twists to make everyone happy.

An aspect of creativity that some non-creative types don’t realize is that one idea will launch from other ideas. If you get the children talking and listen to their thoughts you can receive feedback for making a similar craft in a different way on your next day at the table. Craft ideas books are excellent for this type of lateral crafting as well. Use what you can and change what you must. For instance, the craft may have a slogan to be written across the front of an item the children just made. Change it up for the age of the group, the common element, to turn the item into a gift for a special person – whatever works.

Finally, realize that you don’t have to change the instructions or create something new to have a good craft idea for children. The kids will have a great time either way. Just pick a craft idea and let the children lead you into more creativity – they are naturals at it.

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If you’re growing weary of coming up with new ideas to keep children happy, then these kid-friendly crafts might just be your answer.

We start by providing children with lots of craft materials, suggesting a few outcomes, and letting their imaginations shake the boredom out of them.

Child-friendly craft essentials might include paper, crayons, safe scissors, stickers, sparkles, and glue. The paper for crafting might include construction paper, plain white typing paper, cardstock of various colors, plus cardboard or any other paper you can get your hands on.

Even junk mail, old magazines, expired catalogs, etc. can make interesting arts and crafts projects for kids.

Crayons are nice for younger children, but the stores are now filled with far more options, such as washable dry-erase markers, watercolor pencils, gel pens, sparkle pens and multi-color options. Younger kids who craft enjoy using pasta, beans, popsicle sticks and lots of glitter. Girls especially really enjoy crafting artwork with splashes of glitter.

Saving Money With Crafting for Kids

Kid crafts supplies can run quite high, but there are many ways to save while entertaining your child’s creativity.

Use recycled paper (as listed above) as well as the inside of empty cereal boxes, toothpaste boxes, cardboard boxes, some plastic or styrofoam containers and anything else you might run across that is kid-safe and craft-friendly.

Incorporate some objects from nature to keep their craft projects interesting and your costs down. Spend an hour on a hike with your child(ren) collecting leaves, twigs, rocks, flowers, or any other items from nature.

Hair and wool – from farm animals that may be hanging off the fence – are other items that lend well to children’s crafts. Just be sure that these organic objects have been frozen, washed, or are clean before allowing children to use them. Also, watch your child for any allergic reaction to the animal fur, wool or dander.

Well Tested and Loved Kid’s Craft on the Cheap

One favorite and inexpensive kid craft is collage making. Kids glue anything to the paper surface and essentially create their own interpretation of art. Start with heavy paper for the background, load the table up with paper, pens, natural objects, and then stand back and let them create.

For an extra challenge, ask your young crafters to create a collage based on a theme. The theme of the day could be food, an animal, machinery, or family members. Magazines and catalogs can be used for just the right picture, which can be cut out and glued to the background. Words and headlines from these same sources add a personal touch and are a lesson in themselves when used during craft time.

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Home schooling starts young, in fact learning at home in the early years of life is the perfect prelude to home schooling!

You can start your pre-schooler on the path to joyful learning from as early on as 2 years old (even younger if you know how to make learning fun).

Parents who spend lots of time talking to their baby and pre-schooler in interesting and excited tones (when appropriate) can instill a love of discovery and a desire to ‘know’ in their children. On the other hand, babies and pre-schoolers who aren’t ‘engaged’ or interacted with on a regular basis, have been shown to be ‘flat’ about learning and often don’t do well with any form of discovery of knowledge. The uninspired ones.

"Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French Fries without making them give you any of theirs."
Chris- age 6

Playing With Your PreSchooler

Once your child is old enough to sit comfortably, get them involved in crafting. Crafting begins conversations about colors, textures, tools, and dimensions. Crafting hours turn into full blown projects which eventually morph into learning, reading (through labels made for many items in the home) during a crafting session.

Interaction and making the learning process a ‘game’ keeps pre-schoolers excited about learning new things. They are, in fact, naturals at it – you simply have to capitalize on that natural desire.

One great home schooling mom (her son still quite young) shops the bulk craft section of the country store catalog and she and her son have a blast coming up with, and then creating new projects!

She swears the assortment of activities and games led her son onto the path of being a ‘lateral thinker’ by age 4 with a knack for organization of facts and data. See her suggestions for crafting inexpensively with these bulk and wholesale craft products just below, but click around GoodByeCityLife’s Country Children section to get more fun ideas for learning.

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For those of you who didn’t know me when I was a city girl, let me tell you dealing with more than one child at a time (never let them outnumber you was my motto!), much less a roomful of children, has never been my strong suit! 

It’s a tough job keeping 30 children of various ages amused for 90 minutes. For those of you who do this on a consistent basis, my hat goes off to you!

I was at a loss every weekend wondering what to do with those children (ages: 3-15) every Friday afternoon and Sunday morning. So I started searching online for some help and I’m compiling a list of my favorite resources on this page.

Help for craft or home school classes, amusement and then rushing home to make dinner, is on my current list. More to follow.

Quiet Time – Collecting and Crafting

I’m a flower child – even in northern Canada (with our short summer season) I have 9 flower gardens that provide me with enough short-term joy to keep me doing it every year.

Throughout the summer I collect my best petals and create interesting arrangements under glass (mixed with poetry) as artwork.

And it’s simple enough that children can do this too!

You’ll like this next resource, you’ll learn the tips and tricks, plus ways to make great gifts and money on your creations.

What a great two-step project, collecting flowers then using them in a craft or artwork activity at a later time!

You start by collecting and then pressing to dry, the flowers. Then you make cards out of them, artwork pressed behind glass plus many others. I’ll try to provide more ideas here as time permits, but again this is an inexpensive and easy craft for children that anyone can do. Let your imagination run wild.

What’s for Dinner?

On the run and finding that dinner is a consistent challenge? Me too!

That’s why I love cookbooks that get it from the fridge to the dinner table extra fast – without having to be some pre-packaged, factory made food.

Below you’ll find some of my favorites in books of dinner ideas that are different and delicious!

These may be used or slightly used, but the prices are right and you can’t beat the value of feeding your family a healthier meal – even on the busy days. Whether you’re rushed for dinner or just too darn tired to think of something new to cook, this helps.

Family favorite recipes, perfect when you’ve run out of creativity and dinner time is just hours away. Recommended Recipe Books

Laura Childs
Just Another Home Schooling, House Keeping, Working from Home, Mom

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