Coming up with ideas to keep the kids occupied over the school summer holidays can feel like a daunting and expensive task. But sometimes simple things are what kids enjoy the most, particularly when they can do it themselves. This article is written by Kelly from Creative Little Crafters, sharing some tips for easy and cheap craft ideas.
Craft activities are such a great way to keep the kids entertained, and can help them develop a wide range of skills too. For example, reading instructions can be great for working on literacy skills, particularly with reluctant readers. Counting out supplies and timing how long things take to dry is also good for numeracy skills. Crafts are also a great way to spend quality time bonding with children, where there’s no pressure or expectations on either of you.
Here are some tips and ideas to help you use crafts to keep the kids entertained and learning over the summer holiday.
Start a recycling box for crafts
Add toilet roll tubes, bottle lids, tin foil, and tubs that are all great materials for crafting with. Encourage children to be a part of the activity from the start if possible, for example, ask what they would like to make, or what theme of activity they would like and involve them in gathering the supplies. Or why not ask them what they think they could make from a certain item of recycling?
Get the basics together- scissors, glue and some pens are a great start. Glue dots are good because they don’t require any time to dry and don’t make any mess. Prepare your space, you could use a wipe down tablecloth or even newspaper to cover the table.
Summer crafts: create a scrapbook
At the beginning of the holidays, you could start a scrapbook. Then encourage your children to save mementos throughout the holiday- cinema tickets, receipts from going out, a leaf from a walk, etc. They can doodle on the pages, jot down memories from the day and add photos. They then have a lovely record of their time off and it’s a great way to spend time as a family.
Make a moneybox
Take a butter/spread tub and cut a slit in the top big enough for coins, decorate with stickers, label with their name etc. If it’s a bit sharp cover the edges in tape. This could encourage children to save any pocket money they might get!
Make a door sign
Cut open a cereal box and write your child’s name in bubble type writing on the biggest side. Cut up sparkly paper/card/tissue paper/stickers- anything they can find and fill in the letters. This can then be a door sign, popped in a frame or on the fridge! They could also do others names as gifts.
Handprint crafts
Draw around children’s hands and turn them into fun characters with faces on their palms. They could decorate the fingers as hair, turn them upside down so the fingers are arms and legs or even turn them on the side and make fish! Use googly eyes for a bit of fun!
Make cards
Write a list of birthdays or occasions you have coming up over the rest of the year. Buy card blanks or simply fold some card in half and children can choose who to make a card for each time they want something to do! They could use stencils, draw, stick on stickers, gems, the list is endless and you aren’t then panic buying a shop bought card.
I hope this shows you that crafts don’t need to be over complicated or expensive. Whether you are looking for activities for children to do on their own or to do with them, the beauty of crafts is that they are really adaptable! You can prep loads of elements or leave it for the kids. Whatever they make the children will enjoy doing it.
Summer craft club
If you’d like to find out about my summer craft club, follow Creative Little Crafters on Facebook and head over to the website to find out about my personalised children’s craft box subscriptions.
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