Creating crafts with your kids can be a fun, yet educational process. There are so many ways that crafting can help your kids to learn things they didn’t know. Here are just a few ways your kids can learn through creating crafts:

Introduce new things – Making crafts is a really good way to introduce something new to your child. For example, if you’re crafting with a toddler, you can incorporate a new letter of the alphabet with each craft you make together.

The art of discovery – Let your kids experiment in their crafts. Let them try new things, or different ways of doing something they already know how to do. When your kid has that moment of discovery while crafting, it will cause them to want to craft more. What better way for your kid to discover something, than while crafting with you?

Coordination skills – For younger children who are still learning to use hand-eye coordination, crafts can be a very useful way to enhance these skills. From holding crayons and paint brushes, to gluing together a popsicle stick house, your child can practice their coordination skills.

Build on what they know – If you have an older child, crafts are a good way to help them build on the knowledge they already have. Use more advanced crafts to enhance your kid’s learning ability. For example, if your fifth-grader likes making cute bracelets, incorporate a math lesson into her next beaded bracelet craft session.

Crafting has long been a great way to bond with kids. These days kids are so consumed with technology that they often don’t even know what making crafts means.

Make a connection – If you are having trouble connecting with your child, try crafting with her. Find a fun craft that you know she will enjoy and block out some special time with her. Crafting together is an easy way to get one-on-one time with your kids and find out what’s going on in their minds.

Give emotional support – As you craft together, your child will probably be more willing to open up and talk to you about things that are on his mind. If there is something bothering your child and he opens up and shares his problem with you during your craft time, give him emotional support. Offer your advice and let him know that you are there for him, unconditionally.

Keep it light and fun – If you craft with your child specifically for the purpose of bonding with her, keep your craft time fun. Try not to obsess about how perfect she’s painting or getting the bead glued on just right. Keep your craft time relaxed.

Encourage and stay interested – Many adults suffer from low self-esteem as a direct result of their parents’ negative attitude towards them during childhood. As you craft with your kids, be interested in what they’re doing. Kids love to share their artwork. Be encouraging and pay positive comments to your kid about their craft. Show them that you are interested in them.

Kids of all ages love to craft. If you have younger kids, here are some really fun craft ideas to try with them:

FINGER PAINTING
All kids love the messy feeling of finger painting. Put an old shirt or paper apron on your kid before giving them the paints. For an even less-messy clean-up, take your kids outside and sit them under a tree in the cool shade to paint.

PLAYDOUGH ART
Another favorite of kids is play dough and clay. Lay newspaper on the floor and give your kids small tubs of their favorite-colored play dough. Encourage them to create sculptures with their fun dough.

SOCK PUPPET SHOW
Sock puppets are easy to make. Just glue on a pair of wiggle eyes and make a nose and mouth from felt. Then add a sprout of hair, made with colorful yarn. Make several of these sock puppets out of different sizes of socks and let your kids put on a sock puppet show for you.

PIPE CLEANER FUN
Buy a couple of packs of colorful pipe cleaners and let your kids create art with them. You will be amazed at what they can make from something this simple!

NOODLE ART
Give your kids a sheet of construction paper and a mound of dry macaroni noodles (any fun-shaped dry noodle will work for this craft). Let them draw a picture on their paper with a pencil or crayon first. Then glue around the outline of their picture with white school glue. Let them place their noodles on top of the glue to create a fun noodle art picture.

Are you looking for some fun ways to keep your kids busy during the Thanksgiving holiday? Here are some fun Thanksgiving craft ideas for kids:

Turkey wreath – Buy a straw wreath and various Thanksgiving decorations, let your kids glue on the decorations to make a holiday wreath to hang on your front door.

Turkey cups – With the Thanksgiving family dinner coming soon, you’ll probably have a house full of kids, buy small kid-sized plastic cups and craft markers. Give each kid a cup and let them write their name on it and decorate it.

Turkey placemats – Give your kids colored construction paper and let them make turkeys. After they are finished, mount each turkey on a separate sheet of construction paper, then laminate it. Now they have their own special turkey placemat.

Pinecone turkey – Gather pinecones, then cut out colorful turkey feathers from colored construction paper. Use red felt to cut out the turkey’s comb. Glue your Thanksgiving turkey together, inserting the feathers in between the pine comb leaves.

Thanksgiving flower pots – Buy the smallest red clay pots you can find at your local gardening store (these are super cheap), a bag of potting soil, and packages of various flowers, vegetables, or herb seeds. Let your kids write the name of the seed on the outside of the pot with a magic marker. Next, have them pour potting soil in each pot and plant the seeds. When the seeds begin sprouting in a few weeks, let your kids take their Thanksgiving pots to the local nursing home and give them away as Thanksgiving gifts to the patients.

Fall winds blow and leaves make their decent from tree limbs. It is the perfect time for fun autumn activities for kids. Here are some ways to have fun with your kids this fall:

Create an autumn yard collage

This is a great way to get your kids involved in beautifying your front lawn for the fall season. Materials you will need to create your autumn yard collage include hay bales, pumpkins (all sizes), scarecrows, witches, cornucopias, etc. Anything related to fall will look wonderful. Stack your hay bales to create a backdrop. Next, place a huge scarecrow (or witch) on the center of the stack. Then add other complimentary fall accessories like cornucopias, corn stacks, ghosts, etc.

Make a haunted tree

Making a haunted tree is a fun activity for everyone. It is especially great to do right after raking leaves. First, pick the biggest, best tree in your front yard; preferably one with many long, crooked limbs. Next, take small white trash bags and stuff the top half with leaves from your yard. Twist and tie the bag into a knot, or use a twist-tie to close the end where the leaves stop. Turn upside down and you have a ghost! Make as many of these ghosts as you can, then tie them to tree limbs. As the fall winds blow, your ghosts will haunt your tree.

Happy Autumn Cards

Supply each kid with markers, paper, glue, glitter, stickers, etc. Let them make several autumn cards and write a special message on the inside of each one. After any wet appliqués are dried, gather the cards and take them to your local nursing home to distribute among patients.

Autumn is such a fun time. Leaves turn shades of golden orange and brown. Use this beautiful creation of nature to your advantage. Focus on leaves for inspiration with these fun autumn craft ideas.

Leaf Tracings

Fold 10 sheets of copy paper in half and crease in the center. Bind the booklet by punching two holes in the spine, threading yarn through the holes, and tying the ends. Take your kids to the park. Challenge them to find and trace as many unique leaves as possible.

Book of Leaves

Make a booklet, as described above. This time, have your child search for odd-looking leaves to collect and place in their book. Then give them an encyclopedia and let them research their leaves. Have them write down the name of each leaf and three interesting facts about the leaf.

Leaf Characters

Draw and copy different types of leaves onto thick construction paper. Let your kids cut out the leaves and apply glitter to add sparkle. Next, have them create leaf characters by gluing leaves together to create a face, body, and limbs. After the glue dries, they can draw faces on the leaves with markers.

Leaf Collage

Gather as many types of leaves as you can find. Glue the leaves in any kind of arrangement onto a piece of construction paper or cardboard. Alternatively, spread white school glue across an entire sheet of paper or piece of cardboard. Crumble leaves at random over the glue. When the glue dries, you will have an awesome leaf collage.