How can we make doing Art and Crafts playful?
“True art can only spring from the intimate linking of the serious and the playful.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Children can learn to be creative and express their emotions through art. You don’t need to have fancy supplies to enable your children to create art. You don’t need to be good at art. In fact, I am so bad at drawing that I am almost at the same level as my 5 year-old son. But I have found that doing crafts together has allowed us to connect at a deeper level, even just after tantrums or other difficult moments. For instance, I remember my 3 year-old being incredibly mad about not being able to go a birthday party with his brother, and the only thing that calmed him down was cutting out some cool animal shapes and playing with them together.
Once they are finished they can create an “art exhibition” by using their creations to decorate the house, which will give them a sense of achievement and self-worth. Here are a few ideas I have tried that you can implement with your kids:
· Collage: Use old magazines or advertisement to ask your children to cut out (with child-friendly scissors) some pictures that they like. Give them a new piece of paper and some glue. They can then use these pictures to create a collage.
· Leaves and face game: Go for a walk with your children and pick up leaves and interesting pieces of wood or natural elements together. Then when you come home, use what you collected to each make a face on a piece of paper. For instance, you can use some leaves for the ears and a flower for the nose.
· Decorate your initial: In a cardboard or harder piece of paper, cut out the first letter of your children’s name (for instance F for Felix). Then, ask them to decorate it. Older children can cut out their initial themselves.
· Toilet paper animals: Collect finished toilet paper rolls and save them to transform them into animals or objects. You can use paint or markers or cotton to add colours and make eyes/nose/ears etc. You can also use paper or thread to add to the animals.
· Cut out other shapes: Get the child(ren) to use the shape of their hands, feet or toy to draw lines on a piece of paper. They can then cut out these shapes and decorate them. They can paste on piece of paper to create a Thank you or Birthday card.
· Write a cartoon: Have one child draw a story and then have the whole family create some text bubbles for what the characters/animal/people are saying to each other on that drawing. For older kids they can do several drawings, where the family then adds dialogue to create a full story. This helps develop imagination and story-telling skills.
· Journalist game: Ask your child(ren) to create a report on a specific topic. For instance, if you are expecting a baby, you could ask the sibling to create a report on how babies grow between 0 and 1 years old. To do so, they have to ask questions to other family members or friends. Younger children must memorize the answers and share what they have learned (for instance, during dinner). Older children may write up the answers to create like a newspaper or magazine article (adding images/drawings of their choice).
· Detective game: This is similar to the journalist game, but this time the child needs to answer a mystery question. For instance, how did each of their uncles/aunts meet their spouse for the first time? Another example would be for the “detective” child to find out what work the adults they know do, and what they like best about their job. They need to go on a “reporting adventure”, asking questions to people in the family to collect this information. Older children must create a report or article about this (with images of their choice).
· Playdo: We have some playdo at home and we sometimes use models from the internet to make specific animals or objects. I’ve noticed it keeps my kids entertained longer than when they just play on their own. We then take pictures of their creation in a shoebox. You can make your own playdo (see here for instance).
