Saturday
Apr112009
Arts & Crafts Play
Saturday, April 11, 2009
What kid doesn't love getting covered with paint, glue, glitter and goo? If you want to break out the fun and the giggles, give your child an opportunity to practice fine motor skills, and maybe create some nice homemade toys and decorations as an alternative to crazed consumerism, then this post is for you!
I'm sure there are many blogs and posts out there touching on arts and crafts and I'm only going to list a few of them here that I have read extensively and can highly recommend.
Allie at No Time for Flash Cards has been working with preschoolers for more than 10 years. Via her blog, she shares wonderful ideas for arts and crafts and books that she has tested out with her son.
Her blog is full of wonderful craft projects, complete with step-by-step instructions and pictures of her son working on the crafts. Most of the crafts come along with a book and/or a song to go along with them, making the theme and the fun complete.
Some great ones include:
Her posts are nice and easygoing and make jumping into crafts with kids seem easy. But it isn't always that way. She gave her readers a glimpse of the little mishaps and bloopers that come with the territory in Outtakes By Request.
Annie at Imagination in Parenting is a wonderful photographer and also a mom of twins that enjoys making homemade food, gifts and crafts. Her blog is full of wonderful
inspiration with beautiful photographs chronicling her ideas and thoughts. Whether you are looking for ideas for crafts and other homemade things or just need some beautiful pictures to brighten up your day, go and give Annie's blog a visit.
One of her recent posts was on paper making with her twins. She has step by step pictures showing the process of creating the gorgeous final product. A great rainy day project for her kids.
One of my favourite attachment parenting blogs is Half Pint Pixie. In addition to being an attached mom, she is also a vegan and crafty Irish mom. For Christmas, she worked diligently on a basket of felt food for her daughter. This may be more of a project for the adult or for older kids, but certainly makes a wonderful homemade set of toys for
younger children and I'm sure there would be a way they could help out if you did want to make it a collaborative craft project with the little ones.
If you go to her Felt Food Finale post, you can see the end product and find links to the individual posts and the patterns for the individual pieces that she worked on.
She also has lots of other craft ideas, including some of these:
Enjoy!
Beyond those three blogs that frequently have excellent arts and crafts ideas, there are a few posts I have come across lately that I really loved.
How to die Easter eggs naturally - a tutorial: Amy @ The Crunchy Domestic Goddess put up this wonderful step by step tutorial on dyeing eggs with natural foods. I've put this on my list to do next year for sure (we didn't get around to dyeing eggs this year, but I think my kids will be the perfect age to enjoy it next year).
Language Bingo: I learned about the Unplug Your Kids blog through Lynn @ Chronicle of an Infant Bibliophile. The blog, about living a
TV-free life, includes a weekly unplugged project that includes some fun arts and crafts ideas. As a multi-lingual family with kids that love Bingo, I was enthralled by this week's project to create language bingo cards that have a picture on one side of the cards and the word in the foreign language written on the other side.
This post is part of the Carnival of Play from April 1 to April 15 at PhD in Parenting. Hope you're all having fun!
I'm sure there are many blogs and posts out there touching on arts and crafts and I'm only going to list a few of them here that I have read extensively and can highly recommend.
No Time for Flash Cards
Allie at No Time for Flash Cards has been working with preschoolers for more than 10 years. Via her blog, she shares wonderful ideas for arts and crafts and books that she has tested out with her son.Her blog is full of wonderful craft projects, complete with step-by-step instructions and pictures of her son working on the crafts. Most of the crafts come along with a book and/or a song to go along with them, making the theme and the fun complete.
Some great ones include:
- Peacocks
- Spider Craft and Spider Cookies (yum!)
- Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss (The Cat in the Hat)
- Clothes Pin Stegosaurus
Her posts are nice and easygoing and make jumping into crafts with kids seem easy. But it isn't always that way. She gave her readers a glimpse of the little mishaps and bloopers that come with the territory in Outtakes By Request.
Imagination in Parenting
Annie at Imagination in Parenting is a wonderful photographer and also a mom of twins that enjoys making homemade food, gifts and crafts. Her blog is full of wonderful
inspiration with beautiful photographs chronicling her ideas and thoughts. Whether you are looking for ideas for crafts and other homemade things or just need some beautiful pictures to brighten up your day, go and give Annie's blog a visit.One of her recent posts was on paper making with her twins. She has step by step pictures showing the process of creating the gorgeous final product. A great rainy day project for her kids.
Half Pint Pixie
One of my favourite attachment parenting blogs is Half Pint Pixie. In addition to being an attached mom, she is also a vegan and crafty Irish mom. For Christmas, she worked diligently on a basket of felt food for her daughter. This may be more of a project for the adult or for older kids, but certainly makes a wonderful homemade set of toys for
younger children and I'm sure there would be a way they could help out if you did want to make it a collaborative craft project with the little ones.If you go to her Felt Food Finale post, you can see the end product and find links to the individual posts and the patterns for the individual pieces that she worked on.
She also has lots of other craft ideas, including some of these:
Enjoy!
A Few More Posts
Beyond those three blogs that frequently have excellent arts and crafts ideas, there are a few posts I have come across lately that I really loved.
How to die Easter eggs naturally - a tutorial: Amy @ The Crunchy Domestic Goddess put up this wonderful step by step tutorial on dyeing eggs with natural foods. I've put this on my list to do next year for sure (we didn't get around to dyeing eggs this year, but I think my kids will be the perfect age to enjoy it next year).Language Bingo: I learned about the Unplug Your Kids blog through Lynn @ Chronicle of an Infant Bibliophile. The blog, about living a
TV-free life, includes a weekly unplugged project that includes some fun arts and crafts ideas. As a multi-lingual family with kids that love Bingo, I was enthralled by this week's project to create language bingo cards that have a picture on one side of the cards and the word in the foreign language written on the other side.This post is part of the Carnival of Play from April 1 to April 15 at PhD in Parenting. Hope you're all having fun!
Reader Comments (11)
Great round-up; thank you! Some of these I love, but some I'd never heard of, and am off to visit them.
PS I am just totally and completely in awe of that basket of felt food...
Oh my goodness, such wonderful ideas and links, LP would love that paper making! Thank you so much for including my mad endeavours in the list :)
Thank you so much for including my site, I am in awe of the company I am in and have been reading through them all bit by bit!
The Carnival has been fantastic!
[...] and Crafts: Check out lots of great ideas in the Carnival of Play’s Arts & Crafts Play [...]
[...] and if there is a long period of rain, kids can start to go stir crazy. One fun option is always arts and crafts or maybe [...]
Thanks for linking my paper making post Annie :) I've really enjoyed your play carnival -- I just wish April hadn't been so busy for me and that I could have read everything & even written about play... but I have enjoyed the bits I've managed to read. Thanks!
[...] linked my paper making post in her post about Arts & Crafts Play. Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Just play.I’m working!Carnival of Play: [...]
[...] Arts & Crafts Play: Links to absolutely inspiring arts and crafts bloggers. If you need ideas, these are the places to go. [...]
Thank you for including me on your list. I am honored! Please let me know how your Language Bingo game goes if you give it a try. We had lots of fun making ours!
The paper making artical was great, I tried this with my daughter and we had lots of fun making our own paper.
Thanks for the great idea
Ian