Guest Author - Grace Hodgin

I will never forget one little boy that came to my table to participate in a project at an elementary school I volunteered for each week to teach crafts. He sat down and immediately informed me that his mother thought that craft projects were a waste of time.

He was a child that had difficulties fitting in socially with the other students and I felt craft projects would probably help him in lots of areas that his mother had not considered. I didn’t make a comment to his negative statement but smiled at him and told him to let me know how he felt after completing the project for today.

It was close to Mother’s Day so our craft was to make a tissue flower and paint a card rather than make one in the traditional way with crayons and markers. When it came time for him to make his card I had him use his colors on a palette and experiment with the different colors of paint. A little of his red paint ran over to the yellow which of course made it turn orange. His expression was priceless when he exclaimed, “I’ve just made orange!” Having that hands on experience in discovering colors rather than the information being told to him was probably something he remembered for a long time. He gave me a hug as he left so I didn’t have to ask him how he liked the craft project. It was very evident that a lot of positive things came from our time together.

His self esteem grew from his discovery and finished project. Knowledge had grown in the areas of colors and their combination. He was able to share with the class his card and tell them that red and yellow made orange. Also he got to share his creation with his mother and express his love for her in an action instead of just words. Best of all the little worried frustrated boy that sat down at the table that day left clam, happy, and excited about something he had done on his own.

Crafts are fun and important in developing your child for success in their education and in society. Cutting with scissors, pinching shapes from play dough, and drawing all help a child develop their small motor skills that will aid them in hand writing.

Organizing their supplies before creating a project or determining what they could use instead, if they don’t have the right supplies, will help them in problem solving skills.

Cleaning up after themselves will help them with self discipline. Organizing and categorizing are learned by placing their supplies back to where they belong in storage bins by teaching them color coding, grouping according to size, shape and ordering as in first, second, third, and fourth (or last).

The best thing about crafts and what it can give to your child is a sense of accomplishment. Pride of that accomplishment comes from seeing their project displayed on a refrigerator and getting to say that wonderful statement of “I did it.” The best things crafts can do for parents are the wonderful memories that are created from sharing your knowledge and the fun that comes from time spent together.

Here is a wonderful site with fun craft ideas that will be fun for your child and encourage those skills needed in their educational growth. They also have some great crafts for Easter Projects.

Kids Soup

Grace