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Creating with Critters

December 17th, 2008 at 11:55pm Conscripted Cherry

I know a few of you aren’t craftily inclined, but this is about more than crafts, it’s about kids exploring and learning.

Bryn is my mini-me and her mother is craft challenged so when she wanted a craft sleepover for her 12th birthday I got drafted offered to help. We decorated cupcakes and picture frames and did Shrinky Dinks and painted little plaster of paris critters and decorated pillowcases and made Sculpey erasers and they stayed up late and had fun. But as much fun as they had I think Mom and I had more. Here were four girls, three of whom had never met, from fourth to seventh grades, having fun creating, sharing, and problem solving. It was a joy. I know that is a phrase that get tossed around a lot, but it was truly a joy to watch the wheels turn and the smoke come out of their ears.

My Girl Scouts are in seventh grade this year. Through the years we have really pushed the concept of doing for others, especially at the holidays, and have a tradition of making a family gift each year. When they were in kindergarten we made homemade hot cocoa mix. They helped mix and pour and then they decorated the containers. This year, as much as I was hoping for something that easy, they have determined we need to make reusable grocery bags. So we are. The local screen printer donated a large stack of oopsies to us and we are turning them into bags. Every family should end up with five when we’re done. The part of this i’m most proud of is they decided this is what they wanted to do. True, they left the how to do it to me, but they came up with the bones for the project.

Last year after the Christmas play I had three young ladies over for a craft afternoon. We did Shrinky Dinks and made ornaments from cinnamon dough and drank hot chocolate and ate cookies. When all three girls were talking about it at play practice this year I decided we needed to do it again. So the Sunday after Christmas I am having them over to craft. We’re going to make bookmarks and decorate a straw or a glass for their New Year’s celebration and do another project or two and we’ll drink hot chocolate and eat cookies and probably giggle.

I know not everyone grows up to be crafty, but I am convinced putting a pile of paper, markers, and ribbons in front of a kid and saying, “Make me something” is a good foundation for a creative life. The odds are none of these girls will be the next Martha Stewart, but when faced with a problem that needs solved the paths in their brains that turn parts and pieces into whole items are already there. In the words of the immortal Shake N Bake commercial, “And I helped.”

What life skills do you hope you have been able to teach kids in your world?

Entry Filed under: Craft