KIDS CRAFT TIME

CRAFTING WITH YOUR KIDS IS ESSENTIAL

For me one of the joys of homeschooling our kids is being able to incorporate out of the ordinary activities as part of our curriculum. One of these is craftwork. Everything from cutting and glueing to sewing and knitting. If you want to give it a try, please click on the link and download our FREE KIDS CRAFT PATTERNS.

Now Our personal favourite is sewing, but I know that's not everyones idea of fun. I've met a number of Mom's that are allergic to needles or thread of any kind, and that's fine. That's who you are and nothing to feel guilty about. It's still possible to craft with your kids, you just need a different method. All the love and joy of spening time together crafting is still there whether you're sewing, knitting or glueing!

I've found a couple of Books that have all sorts of craft ideas in them and are worth a look.

Each craft in this book adjusts to the child's skill level. Now what this means for me is that I can do the same Craft Activity with both my 5 year old and my 8 year old. Which makes my life easier! Some of the projects you'll find are:

I was thrilled with this book and can highly recommend it. I'm great with sewing, knitting and painting, but making goodies out of everyday household things, generally defeats me. LITTLE KIDS CRAFTS FOR ALL SEASONS made it so easy!

You know those days, no matter what you come up with the kids moan about it being boring. You need something new, something exciting, and most of all for me...Something easy!

That's exactly what you get from 365 CRAFT IDEAS!

A few added bonuses that I found when using the book were:

If you're allergic to needles and thread this is the book for you! Or if your kids are just not interested in sewing then 365 CRAFT IDEAS is definitley money well spent. No matter how much we may love a specific craft activity (sewing for me) it becomes boring if it's repeated over and over again. I loved this book because I could choose out of so many activities the one's that I felt I could manage.

SEWING USING EASY CRAFT PATTERNS

I've spent a fair amount of time researching Rudolph Steiner's Waldorf teaching method. And incorporate the parts that I feel comfortable with into our curriculum. One of the Waldorf habits we do practice is sewing. Sewing is a fantastic way to aid the development of your child's fine motor skills. (Dr Maria Montessori's teaching method also stresses this fact!) The amount of co-ordination needed to aim a needle at a particular spot appears to be huge. But believe it or not a 3 year old will soon get the idea. You'll be amazed at the skill really young children show when sewing.

I started my kids off making rainbow snakes, and slowly worked our way to birds, jets, dragons and the like. In fact anything can be made into a pattern to cut out and sew. Juliette, who's 8 years old, can tackle just about any project we attempt, and is now starting to initiate her own projects. She'll bring me an idea, neatly drawn, and ask me to make a pattern for her. StJohn is now 5 years old, and he is able to keep up with both Juliette and I, with a bit of help. There is nothing nicer for us on a cold and wet afternoon, then to cuddle up next to the fire and make new toys.

I would love to help you to discover the joy of crafting with your kids. To do this I've put a few FREE CRAFT PATTERNS together for you to download. I'm in the process of writing a book filled with patterns, but it's nowhere near ready yet! The free craft patterns available at the moment are for a beautiful heart and my favourite ever… Puff the Magic dragon. The Heart is a brilliant one to start with as it is so easy. My kids have made them over and over again. Puff the Magic Dragon is a little bit more difficult, but still remarkably easy for a dragon. He truly is beautiful. StJohn managed his with very little help from me. Puff is a firm favourite with Juliette and StJohn and sleeps with them at night.

Each pattern downloaded comes with full instructions, a list of what you need, and ideas for making your new toy unique. We've found that it doesn't matter how many of the same item you make each one is original. So you can use them over and over again.

If your child has never used a needle and thread before, I highly recommend starting with THE RAINBOW SNAKE. They are so easy, and they help your little one to get the hang of threading beads and felt. They can be as long or short as you like. We love them! They hang all over the house. In fact we even had a Rainbow Snake Party for StJohn this year. All the children were given the makings of a snake and off they went. They loved it! But that's another story…I've put together instructions of RAINBOW SNAKE MAKING to make that first step with the needle easier for you. I'd like to give this to you as a gift. It has brought us so much enjoyment , I hope you'll love it as much as we do.

Now the joy of the Heart and Dragon patterns is that when you've downloaded them. All you need to do is print them out and then cut them out. There is no tracing onto paper, no pinning. I've excluded all the things that make sewing a joyless and long winded task!

To get sewing all you need is:

• Our homeschool journey pattern of your choice
• Paper and ink for your printer
• A pair of Scissors
• Chalk or pencil or pen
• A few beads, buttons or sequins
• A needle
• Thread, any colour will do.
• Felt. (Just a small square)
• Stuffing, any will do.

So there's no better time to start crafting activities with your kids. Please accept our gift of a FREE KIDS CRAFT PATTERN, and full instructions. The gift is not just a pattern that we're giving to you for free. It's a way for us to share the joy that we feel.

I hope you'll find crafting is a whole new way for you to laugh, have fun and share with you kids. Thank you for taking the time to visit us here at Our Homeschool Journey. Come back again, you're always welcome! May you have many joy filled hours crafting with your precious children.