Making crafts with your children is a very rewarding way to spend time with them. Kids have an inherent creativity that can be brought out and rewarded through crafting in a way that isn’t possible with other activities.
Crafting is great for building up self-esteem. There are no wrong answers in crafts. As Bob Ross famously shows us in his paintings, if you make a mistake while creating a craft, you can simply turn it into an intentional part of the design. The final product will still make your child (and you!) proud of their work.
The creation of a finished tangible object also helps to build self-esteem. Your child can look at the completed project and say “Yes, I did that.” It’s a powerful feeling. It’s even more effective if the craft is for a useful household object that becomes part of the rotation in the living room or kitchen.
Perseverance is another personality trait improved by doing crafts together. You’ll teach your child that if they stick with the project, they’ll be happy with the results. They’ll get to see the final product. If they walk away from the project in the middle, they’ll never see what they are able to accomplish.
Crafting also improves hand-eye coordination and prepares your child for later skills. Coloring, even scribbling, and other craft activities like cutting out shapes with scissors or applying glue all help your child build up the control of the muscles in their hands. This control will be useful when it comes time to write in school.
Doing crafts is an opportunity to your spread your wings and be a little messy. We spend much of our lives being careful not to make messes and pass that along to our young children. They pour drinks with exaggerated precision and scold family pets for eating messily. But crafting is different; it’s supposed to be messy. Lay down some old newspapers to protect your carpet, or choose a corner of your garage or basement if available.
Crafting with your children is fun for you and for them, and provides a wide variety of benefits. From improving their self-image and confidence to increasing their “stick to it-if-ness,” to bettering their hand-eye coordination, the ways crafting with children helps them are many. Plus it’s just a chance to cut loose, to be creative and a little messy, and everyone needs that sometimes.