National Children’s Craft Day

March 14th is the day to be creative by celebrating crafting with children. National Children’s Craft Day is a good way to have children become creative and proud of their craft project.

While children enjoy painting, paper crafts, sewing or knitting and other crafts, there are hidden benefits while they are working on their projects. They learn to follow directions, overcome mistakes, learn reading comprehension and learn to work independently if old enough for these last two.

Crafting can be very inexpensive, most everyday household item can be used for projects. I love to recycle things and a toilet paper tube or plastic can be turned into a bird feeder! Kids will have a fun time “painting” the tube or cup with peanut butter and rolling in bird seed. We did the first one with the toilet paper tube but once it rained, the tube fell apart. The next time we did this project, we used a plastic cup and that worked much better. http://themarthareview.com/fun-bird-feeder-project/

Hand or footprint crafts are fun for little ones! Just paint the bottom of their foot or palm of their hand and turn it into a wonderful gift! Last Mother’s Day my great granddaughter and I made a bouquet of flowers with her handprint. Her mommy was so excited when she received Lia’s gift of handprint flowers! http://themarthareview.com/lias-projects-for-mothers-day/

Another fun handprint project was making Christmas ornaments! It’s so much fun helping little ones do crafting and see the look of accomplishment on their face when the project is completed. http://themarthareview.com/santa-handprint-ornaments/

When my grandchildren were younger, I enjoyed doing crafts with them. One fun project I did with my granddaughter when she was about 4 years old was an Easter egg contest to decorate an egg. After I blew the egg out of the shell Alexandra painted it and decorated her egg with items from around the house. She used a dish scrubbie for hair, a seashell for a hat, ears and nose and to keep the egghead standing up, she glued a bottle cap on the bottom. A fun project and she won 2nd place in up to 8 years old age category!

My grandson is a hands on type of person. Ever since he’s been young, he’s loved doing origami crafts. He makes them all different sizes and one year he made a family of cranes! I added thread to the cranes and turned them into a mobile for display. This is a blog I wrote about Zachary’s origami crafts! http://themarthareview.com/origami-mobile/

Paper crafts are a big hit for my 18 month of great granddaughter, she loves to paint! But when we made her mommy’s birthday present and she got paint in the wrong spot I was able to show her how to overcome mistakes by turning the paint smudge into leaves for flowers! http://themarthareview.com/mommys-birthday-surprise/

Doing craft projects is a great way to bond with your little ones and have fun at the same time. Do you enjoy doing crafts with your children or grandchildren? What are some of your favorite fun craft projects? Pick a project for today and celebrate National Children’s Craft Day!