Crafts are so much fun with children, but have you ever noticed their short attention span leads to lots of extra “fun” if you are not prepared?
Hauling out the craft box and letting my little guy go through it is exciting and creative, but often times leads to a sheet of paper with some stickers and a few squiggles of crayon, maybe a pom pom glued on for a little added flare….but nothing specific. I am all for letting him be creative, but from time to time we want our kids to learn something from the craft, right?
My solution for crafting with a purpose is to create craft bags. The idea came from my continued success with freezer meals (all the prep work done!). So I have 4 or 5 craft bags made up in my box and ready to haul out when I need to fill some time on a rainy day.
You can start by picking a few crafts that require some prep from you anyway. Maybe cutting shapes, painting something, or drawing. Then place all the elements of the craft into the bag and label the bag with the Name of the craft and the Extra Supplies needed. ie: glue stick, paint, glitter, etc…
Here is a kit I made up for making an apple tree craft with Clayton when he was 2 1/2 years old.
Elements out of the bag and ready to make.
Finished craft.