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My 5 year old has just discovered the joy of step-by-step arts and crafts. I think it great. Give her a tub of materials, some options for projects, and if she's in the right mood, she'll create something out of the book.
She also loves building Lego, carefully following the directions to build the item out of the Lego bits in the box.
Problem is, Lego projects are too expensive, at $10 - $15. And we only have 1 tub of art materials with up to 54 projects. She'll probably make 5 or so of them before she wants to go onto other things.
Second problem is, my wife and I both work and we're strapped on time. We don't have time to go buy lots of art and craft supplies and wouldn't really want to purchase a lot of that anyway.
What can we do to support my daughters interest in step-by-step crafts?
Are there good books with craft options that my 5 year old can do?
pipe cleaners
felt
pom poms
markers
crayons
glue
paper
craft sticks
rubber bands
yarn
googly eyes
etc.
save toilet paper tubes, paper towel tubes, and newspaper.
Tell her to create.
Regarding the Legos, there is no need to buy the kits. Simply buy a tub of pieces. Search for "Lego tub" and lots of choices come up. Again, tell her to create.
Kids come up with the best ideas using their imagination and creativity, not simply following step by step instructions.
Stop buying "projects" and just get supplies. Our kids spent hours with construction paper, scissors, glue sticks and markers/crayons. At 5 years old, making 5 "projects" is good. They have the attention span of a flea at that age so moving from activity to activity is normal.
Go to garage sales in the summers to buy legos.
Are your jobs really that important that you can't spend an hour every so often looking for art supplies? I hope that you didn't really mean it the way it came out?
Thrift stores have everything you need for crafts, including brand new, unopened kits, books, and all sorts of supplies. You have to be lucky to find Legos, but they do come in.
Treat it like any other interest your child has and buy the supplies. What do you mean, you don't have time to shop for supplies? Just buy them when you do your other shopping.
We always kept bins of scissors, glue, playdoh, glitter, construction paper, old magazines, poster board, stickers, crayons, markers, pastels, poster paint, watercolor kits, etc. Now that mine are teens, my son has lost interest in drawing and art, but my daughter has graduated to Copic markets and other real art supplies.
You just support your kids' interests and see what happens. Sometimes it fizzles out, and other times they stay interested for many years.
My 5 year old has just discovered the joy of step-by-step arts and crafts. I think it great. Give her a tub of materials, some options for projects, and if she's in the right mood, she'll create something out of the book.
She also loves building Lego, carefully following the directions to build the item out of the Lego bits in the box.
Problem is, Lego projects are too expensive, at $10 - $15. And we only have 1 tub of art materials with up to 54 projects. She'll probably make 5 or so of them before she wants to go onto other things.
Second problem is, my wife and I both work and we're strapped on time. We don't have time to go buy lots of art and craft supplies and wouldn't really want to purchase a lot of that anyway.
What can we do to support my daughters interest in step-by-step crafts?
Are there good books with craft options that my 5 year old can do?
Use recycled materials. My kids at that age loved to create with:
1. toilet paper rolls
2. paper towel rolls
3. tissue paper - especially colored tissue paper
4. wrapping paper scraps
5. old magazines with pictures in them
6. egg cartons (our preschoolers made caterpillars and butterflies with these when they were reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar)
7. ribbons and strings
8. flowers or weeds from the garden or your lawn
9. pine cones
10. leaves
11. old clothing that you cut up for the scraps of material
12. yarn scraps
13. plastic water bottles
14. pop tops from aluminum cans or the cans themselves
15. paper plates
16. old newspapers - especially the comics.
Add 30 minutes to your grocery shopping day and go get supplies or order supplies from amazon so they can be delivered to your home. You don't need anything formal, you just need supplies and your child can create her own projects.
Use recycled materials. My kids at that age loved to create with:
1. toilet paper rolls
2. paper towel rolls
3. tissue paper - especially colored tissue paper
4. wrapping paper scraps
5. old magazines with pictures in them
6. egg cartons (our preschoolers made caterpillars and butterflies with these when they were reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar)
7. ribbons and strings
8. flowers or weeds from the garden or your lawn
9. pine cones
10. leaves
11. old clothing that you cut up for the scraps of material
12. yarn scraps
13. plastic water bottles
14. pop tops from aluminum cans or the cans themselves
15. paper plates
16. old newspapers - especially the comics.
My kids also just used stuff from around the house. We also kept a supple of pipe cleaners, pom poms, crayons, markers, paints, construction paper and glue and you can create almost anything.
Most libraries have books that you can check out with project ideas.
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