Handcrafts to do with kids

Get hands–on and start doing handcrafts with your children. With crafts you can develop fine motor and artistic skills, as well as feeding their imagination and helping them to concentrate on activities.

 

These activities need adult supervision, which is the perfect excuse to spend quality family time together! All of these activities promote dialogue between parents and children and help strengthen relationships. It doesn’t matter if the craft is complicated or simple, what’s important to them that it’s lots of fun!

In LAE Kids, the Spanish school for kids, we’ve tried plenty of activities and they’ve all had great results! They can all be adapted to different ages and the amount of supervision needed will also depend on that. The younger they are, the more supervision they’ll need, while if they are older, they’ll want to feel a bit more self-sufficient. The most important thing is to offer them a stimulating environment, provide them with materials and ideas and challenge them constantly; making them feel like it’s a joint activity.

 

The good thing about handcrafts is that there is one for every taste and you can use as many materials as you want: recycled material, non perishable items, paints, newspapers, etc and you can always find a way of using it at home, making it really motivating for the kid.

 

Dough Figurines:

 

This dough is pretty easy to make, feels nice to the touch and the results are great. To make the dough the ingredients are:

  • 2 cups of flour
  • 1 cup of salt
  • 1 cup of water
  • Edible colorants or paints.

 

Mix the salt and flour together and then little by little start adding water, kneading until the dough doesn’t stick to your hands. Then add the coloring of your choice. For kids ages 1 to 2, you could use it in the same way as Play Doh. Older kids can use it to create figures or for a specific purpose, for example to prepare ornaments to hang around the house. You roll out the dough and afterwards you cut it with a pastry cutter. You make a little hole on the top and leave it to dry. Once dried, if you haven’t added any colorants yet, you can paint them. Depending on the age of the child, you can make the easier or more difficult, but they will love creating something that they can hang in their rooms or in the house. Take a look at the Christmas-themed ones we made at LAE Kids with our Spanish students:

 

Wool balls:

 

Dough Figurines

 

Nowadays lots of children’s bedrooms are decorated with these types of balls, with LED lights inside. To make them, you’ll need a ball of wool (any color will do and you can even mix different colors together), balloons, glue, water and paint brushes. First we cut the wool into long strips, and blow up the balloons (not too big). Mix the water and the glue in a bowl and put in the wool strips. Using the paintbrush, start pasting the wool onto the balloon and leave it to dry overnight. Once it’s fully dry, poke the balloon until it bursts and LISTO! The ball is ready!

 

Cardboard constructions:

 

Wool balls

 

How many times have you bought an expensive toy only for the kids to play more with the box than the toy?! A cardboard box is something that kids love to use and can challenge their imagination. We love the idea of developing their imagination and other skills by turning their imagination into reality. Our students wanted the box to be a doll’s house but you can build a space ship, a crib, a racing car…. Whatever you can imagine and paint!

Pain outside of the box
Work on the details
The kids can decorate it Handicrafts

Choose what you want to create and paint the outside of the box with your child’s help.
Work on the details and the things to go inside. If you create a house like we did, you can make all types of furniture with household items.
Once it’s finished, the kids can decorate it any way they want with glitter, stickers, paint… and then all that’s left is to let them play!

 

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