Arts And Crafts For Kids At Michaels

Children love to play a lot simply because they are children. They want to explore the world around them and use their five senses to do that. They are so thrilled to learn new things every day, and the delight on their faces and the sparkle in their eyes say it all – they want to learn more. As the parent of a potential prodigy, you are expected to find pleasure in providing all of the essential things and employing every learning method ever conceived to be able to feed your child’s insatiable hunger for more knowledge.

In recent years, there are scientific studies that show some startling facts about a child’s brain development. Such studies reveal that learning starts at a child’s birth until age 6, and it is replaced by the acquisition of wisdom from age 7 onwards. Saying it plainly, the advocates of these studies are trying to relay a message – brain development ends by the time a child reaches his 7th birthday!

Another group of scholars vehemently deny such claims and readily make their own scientific counter-declarations. This latter group argues that brain development is endless, for learning is a lifelong process.

Whichever contention is true and justifiable, it will do your child much good if you heed both. Give your child the early head start at learning and let it continue until he gets tired of it (if he ever will!).

Creative Learning

While a child plays, he learns at the same time. At some point in his early life, he will bombard you with seemingly endless questions. You will come to realize that you either don’t have all the answers to his queries, or you find it quite awkward to give a convincing response. Try to answer a question and he will give you more. Some, if not most, parents find the “whys” so exhausting that they simply give an “I don’t know” reply, thinking that the questions would end (sometimes they would not, much to the parents’ horror!)

Creative play gives your child the opportunity to develop his motor, cognitive, social and emotional skills especially when other kids are around. Give him crayons, colored pens and pencils, modeling clay, paint and paint brush, building blocks and the like. You’ll be amazed at how well he will perform at each project that he sets his mind into.

When you see your child so engrossed in his activity at hand, restrain yourself from giving him praise for most likely he will lose his focus and spoil the momentum. Wait until he finishes with his art or craft and shower him with gestures of love and appreciation.

There is a wide variety of arts and crafts supplies available at both traditional and online stores, and some of them even offer arts and crafts classes for various levels. Enrolling your child in one specific class will have his hands full and he will gain a wealth of new experiences as well as new friendships.

At home, you can even take the time to join in your child’s art or craft project. Allow your child to lead the whole undertaking while you give guidance or suggestions from time to time. He will enjoy the moments you share with him and just in case you don’t realize it yet, those are crucial times in his life that will forever be etched in his memory. Also, he won’t be a kid for long and if you let those moments pass you by without making the most of them, then you are bound to look back and regret such wasted, empty years.

Various Arts And Crafts At Each Age Level

Before you get to the regretting part, you can avoid it completely by spending quality time with your precious little one through shared moments with various arts and crafts listed here. You can find the instructional details for each project online.

For Preschoolers – The arts and crafts for this level includes the following:
Box town, egg carton flowers, and
collage place mat;

Sculptures using materials such as straw, toothpick and aluminum foil;

Painting projects such as marble painting, hot rod painting, straw painting, bubble paint, potato prints and paint squirting;

Stamp making;

Pipe cleaner art, envelope art and shaving cream art;

Butterfly magnet and milk jug fish;

Colored rice, sock sacks, squeeze ball and easy tie dye;

Clay and Bread and glue recipes;

Fingertip pictures and toothpick architecture; and
Kitchen utensil characters.

For Kids Aged 5 And Above – The various arts and crafts for preschoolers mentioned above are also applicable for kids at this level with the introduction of new ones as follows:

Bean mosaic and pine cone bird feeder;

Envelope animals craft and leather-like vase craft;

Friendship bracelets and family napkin ring; and
Windsock.

Arts And Crafts For Special Occasions – There are lots of arts and crafts for kids that are suited for special occasions like Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, Easter, Christmas, Thanksgiving, Valentine’s Day, Halloween, 4th of July, April Fool’s Day, and other holidays the whole year through.

Every art or craft is intended not only as a child’s pastime, but also to nurture the parent-child relationship. With the fabulous arts and crafts mentioned in this article, you have lots of options to spend quality time with your child. Remember, life is short and time is precious. There’s no better way to spend them than with your child!