Kids crafts should not only be used to commemorate holidays, there is much more to be gained.

As children tend to love art, when adults look for activties to do with children, it is often crafts.
Kindergarten and nursery school teachers, doting grandmothers, loving aunts
give children crafts to do as a way of bonding with them which is often done in conjunction with the holidays

Everyone knows that kids love to color and paint and since it is really hard to get many children to concentrate for long periods of time on any activity, crafts is the perfect way to fill that time.

Expectations of the children is the larger problem here. Children are unable to think of realistic looking crafts to make at very young ages so the adult just picks an adults model and has them copy that. 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 books and websites that are full of them
and finding all sorts of cute looking crafts projects will not be a problem at all.

Crafts that are copycat are very detrimental to kids and you should take a minute to hear why. 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.

If you think about it it makes alot of sense. Traditional arts and crafts can turn children into robots when they don’t let think for themselves as to the creation of their projects. I will give you an explanation why tradtional, old fashioned arts and crafts are not good for children.

It is a travesty to relegate art to the commemoration of holidays. It should be a fun time for the kids along with the skills that they should be gaining.

Creativity, independence, initiative, and self esteem should be just some of the by products of children’s crafts activities.

Children gain alot in their fine motor skills is what the crafts teachers will say. What they don’t even see is, that it is most probably the only positive thing about 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.

Why is it then that adults tend to only get busy with crafts around holiday time.

Now that we know what we know, what do we do?
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.Is there any thought that can be put into this project?
3. Where’s the creativity here?
4.Will the children really feel that this project reflects their work?

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