Sorry for the lapse in posts. We went out of town to visit the in-laws for a couple of days.
I hope you’re enjoying Spring! Winter and spring are still having a bit of a battle around here but I’m just happy most of the snow is gone and green really is coming.
I thought I’d share some of my favorite sites for art and crafting for children. If you have more to add, please leave suggestions in the comments!
Art Projects for Kids is a daily blog of creative, interesting art projects for elementary aged children, though any age would enjoy most of them. Sometimes she incorporates art history lessons, teaching about great artists and showing the kids how to emulate them, for instance. I like to go and search for themes we’re doing to find neat project ideas.
The Crafty Crow is a daily blog that features a craft project from a different site every day. There are so many wonderful projects here! This is one to bookmark for sure.
Unplug Your Kids is a challenge blog that features a different theme each week. Participants do any art project, craft, science activity, etc. that they like that has to do with the theme. Past themes have included water, 3D, square and smooth. This is a great way to give yourself a little shove to do something creative with the kids and it’s also always fun to take a look at what other families did with the theme.
Dollar Store Crafts isn’t specifically for kids, but they often feature crafts that would be great for kids. I love the premise of this fun craft blog, which uses dollar store items or free things to make all of their projects. One of my favorite projects was this Waldorf style doll.
Sometimes, though, I also like to avoid the craft sites completely. Most of our favorite projects were born out of a little bit of boredom, a few raw materials and plain old creativity. The fairy wands the kids made the other day are a great example.
Those blog projects are fabulous and are perfect for jump starting our creativity and giving us rainy day ideas. When you’re not up to playing art director, though, that’s okay too. Have a variety of good quality art materials around and encourage the kids to dream up their own projects. Acorns caps become fairy bowls. Rocks become canvasses. Old toy wheels become robot parts. Maybe the end result won’t look like a featured craft on a fancy blog, but to kids and their fans they can be even better. 🙂