Why Arts and Crafts Are So Good For You and Your Family

So crafting is your passion and your hobby? If you have little kids, there are many reasons to share this hobby with them. When you craft with your kids there are a number of benefits for them and they will learn a lot of important life lessons and skills. They will benefit even more if you don’t give them a strict project to follow, but simply let them explore the materials and use their own imagination to create something of their own.

Here are some of the many reasons you should be crafting with your kids.

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Making Things is Therapeutic and Helps Kids Manage Their Emotions

When a child is given free rein to create something, this can have a very therapeutic and calming effect. It will allow them to express themselves in a way that they might not be able to in words. Whether they are feeling sad, happy, angry or any other emotion, making art can be a way for them to express it – which makes it easier to talk about.

Improving Their Skills Boosts Confidence

Whether your child is learning basic fine motor skills such as gluing or cutting with scissors, or more complicated stuff like making beaded jewellery, they will get a confidence boost as they watch their skills improve. When a child masters something new they learn that if they work hard they can achieve it. This improves their confidence and encourages them to try new things and work hard to improve in other areas of their life.

It Creates Quality Time for You and Your Children

When you sit down together to do crafts with your child you are creating an opportunity for true quality time together, that isn’t interrupted by a TV or your phone. You will make very valuable memories together and deepen your relationship. You’ll have an opportunity to talk with each other and you can really listen to their thoughts, ideas, hopes and worries and connect with your little one.

It Teaches Them to Try, Even If They Fail

If you and your child are crafting together and they make something that just doesn’t work out, let them know not to worry and fret. It’s totally okay to make a failed craft project – you can simply learn from it and start again. Even the best crafters make projects that don’t turn out in the end, but that’s how we all learn and improve. This is a very important lesson for your little ones to learn.

Crafting Encourages Experimentation

When you are crafting with your little ones, encourage them to play around with the materials and try something new. What happens when you soak a ribbon in glue and dip it in glitter? What happens when you draw with a white crayon and then paint over it with water colour? What objects that you find outside, like a leaf, a stick or a pinecone, can you use to paint with?

Experimenting with different methods, papercraft supplies and materials is one of the best parts of crafting and it will teach your kids to be creative and think outside the box. Let them come up with new ideas for crafting projects and techniques and try them out. Creative thinking is a skill that will benefit them immensely in their future life.

These are just a few of the reasons why crafting with your kids is so important. An important thing to remember is to never tell your kids that they have to make crafts in a certain way. Maybe there is a way that you like to do things or an example you are following, but let them know that there isn’t only one right answer. Flowers don’t have to be red, craft supplies don’t need to be used a particular way, the sky doesn’t have to be blue and your child should be free to express themselves in their own way. Avoid making an “example” for your kids to copy and instead let them decide for themselves what the finished product will look like. You can help them with the fine motor skills, but leave the creative vision up to the – it’s so much better for their development if they can complete their own projects based on their original ideas.