In the 80s, my sister and I would flip through a craft book, pick a project, like a colourful pompom caterpillar or a butterfly print mobile, and make it with our mum. Crafting together was my happy place and still is.
You don’t need to be an ‘artistic’ parent to craft with your kid, although my mum could sew brilliantly and on reflection, this simple book probably ignited my passion to be creative. I love the blogger ‘Five Minute Mum’s’ advice: set up, start making, and chances are, your kids will join in too.
Sometimes, I just help my youngest son with his cardboard creations, which tend to be tanks or game controllers using coloured gaffer tape and poster paint. Cardboard is brilliant for crafting—sculpt it, paint it, even get inside it! I came across an Instagram post recently from borntoplay_kids, which was a simple yet genius idea. She had made a giant canvas out of cardboard and stuck egg boxes, tubes, paper plates and other packaging over it and her toddler was daubing away inside the boxes and upon all the interesting textures! So clever and fun!
My littlest found a great book from the library, ‘Cardboard Activity Lab’ by Jemma Westing, which is full of interesting and simple projects and so I included one of her projects in my craft session at the beginning of the summer holidays.
And so, to answer the question I posed, what to do? I invited some mum friends and their kids over for a crafting day to see what hit the crafting sweet spot. It was also great as the mums could have a guilt free cup of tea and a catch up while the children got creative, spurred on by seeing what their friends were doing.
I must confess the parents needed to be ‘available’ as the group were aged between 5-7, and I did have to get a few specific materials in, (thank you Amazon) but also the parents had a go at some of the tasks too and really loved it! The loose theme of the British weather helped me decide on what to create, so we picked four projects that reflected that.
It was a really fun day and we finished off the sessions with pizza, salad and ice-cream and of course the children had something beautiful they had made to take home.
In terms of having a go yourself, there are so many online resources or craft books from the local library with really clear instructions to suit all ages. Prepare a few ideas, make a trip to the local craft shop to get the basics or rummage around to see what is already at home. I had a lot of lollipop sticks, so I did an online search’ ‘crafting with lollipop sticks’ and was genuinely surprised about the amount of creative potential and possibilities.
We only managed to complete four projects, so I guess I’ll save the rest for Autumn and the next craft day, perhaps when the weather is a bit grim.
