Crafts, an activity that many children adore, is one of the top 10 activites that adults do with kids.
Teachers, homeschoolers, stay at home moms, aunts and babysitters
think that crafts is a great activity to do together with children as a way of remembering holidays
We all know that kids love art supplies, especially the messy ones. It’s an easy activity for them to concentrate on and a great time filler.
When adults fall into the trap of trying to get young children to create crafts that are realistic looking, that’s were the mistakes are made. They just assume that they have to get the idea and the children will just copy their models. 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 so many on the web, that there are too many to count
and I am sure there will be no difficulty finding tons of crafts online for kids to copy.
I do want, however, to give you a short explanation as to why copycat crafts aren’t good for children. 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.
What happens is that kids don’t think or solve any problems when doing the crafts and this makes them robotic. Just give me a moment and I will explain the ideas behind copycat crafts and why they are so detrimental.
Arts and crafts should not only be used to remember the holidays. It should be a fun time for the kids along with the skills that they should be gaining.
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.
Many art proponents tout the fine motor skills children are gaining by doing arts and crafts, that however, is all that they are probably getting in copycat crafts.
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.
One of the problems is that many adults relegate crafts only to holiday time.
So what does a person do now?
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.Does this project let the children use their 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
Tags: art, arts and crafts, children, childrens activities, crafts, kids, projects