Instead of letting your child spend all of their time on their devices, you can encourage them to take up some DIY projects to keep their hands and minds busy.
Even though the internet might be a great source of information, giving your children unlimited access to this platform can have adverse effects on their development and health.
This is because staring at a digital screen for long hours can lead to eye strain and poor short-term memory.
Some research backs up the importance of art and craft in the development of children (Live Strong).
Letting your kids do arts and crafts projects can help develop their fine motor skills, increase dexterity, boost self-esteem, and enhance decision-making skills.
Arts and crafts projects can also boost your child’s self-esteem, making it easier for them to mingle with their peers and get out of their comfort zones.
You do not have to spend a lot of money buying expensive craft supplies for your kids.
In fact, your children can make arts and crafts projects using materials that are already found in your home.
Simply by recycling everything from old magazines to customized cotton printed eco bags, you can give your child material to craft with.
Here are some craft ideas that your child can explore.
It can be something simple like painting flower pots.
4 DIY Craft Projects Kids Can Do Unsupervised
Paper Mache Bowls
Paper Mache bowls are easy-to-craft projects that require very few things.
Your child needs to work with old newspaper/paper bags, water, glue, and a bowl.
There are recipes of how one can make their own glue for paper mache (WikiHow).
Your child needs to dip strips of paper into the glue and stick it on the bowl to form multiple layers.
After the layers have dried, the molding bowl can be removed.
Your child can then paint the paper mache bowl to make it colorful.
Your child can make many more things once they learn how to paper mache on Instructables.
If your children love making paper mache bowls, consider trying out some craft storage ideas to organize different kinds of papers.
Storing your craft supplies is essential so your children will easily know where to find them when they want to make arts and crafts projects.
Wind Chime from Waste
Making wind chimes can be fun for your child since they can try to see the different noises that different things make.
For making wind chimes the basic things your child will need are a big stick and some strings.
The stick acts as the main anchor of the chime.
After tying a string to the main branch, many more strings can be suspended, and things can be tied to the strings to construct the chime.
Some things that you can use to make the chime are:
- plastic utensils
- tin cans
- seashells
- coins
- sticks
- old metal utensils
- old keys
- soda bottle caps
You can let your child tie or superglue the different things to the strings to see the noise that they make.
Wind chimes are great projects that can encourage your child’s creativity.
If you want to make this project more interesting, call your children’s peers and let them make wind chimes inside your home.
You can even host a contest and give prizes to anyone who makes the most colorful wind chimes.
Don’t forget to take pictures of their finished works and hung their masterpieces outdoors!
Printed Eco Bags Notebook Cover
Instead of buying notebook covers, your child can learn to reuse things from around the house.
Customized cotton-printed eco bags make the perfect material for soft notebook or diary covers.
Your child will need to measure the customized cotton printed eco bag and cut out the measured part.
With the help of double-sided tape or glue, the customized cotton-printed eco bag can be attached to the notebook’s cover.
By using fabric paint, the customized cotton-printed eco bag can be colored.
Aside from being eco-friendly, using printed eco bags will also make your children’s notebooks unique.
Using these will surely make them stand out in their classes.
Tin Can Pen Stand
Food tins can be reused instead of being thrown away.
You might have to use a tin cutter and a nail file for some tins to make the opening large and smooth.
Your child can take the tin can and paint them.
Encourage your child to paint their favorite sceneries or names on the tin cans.
They can even paint their favorite cartoon characters or basically, any object that they can think of.
Different color of craft paper can also be used to stick onto the side of the tin can to make it colorful.
Your children can make an abstract using different colors and shapes of craft papers or turn it into a beautiful flower or animal.
Your kids will never run out of options when decorating tin cans using craft papers!
You can take old CDs and cut them up for your child to stick onto the can using super glue.
Your child can check out various tin can decoration designs online.
These are only a few craft projects that your child can try.
Encourage your child to try and recycle household waste to make masterpieces.