“I’m bored!”
This is perhaps the most plaintive and frustrating cry heard in any family home. But there are a surprisingly wide variety of easy crafts to do with kids at home to dispel the boredom.
Every Child is Crafty
With so many children at home during this unusual and even historic school year, it stands to reason that they can become easily bored and a little “stir crazy.” And, with the fall weather starting up, the colder and wetter days are just around the corner, which can just add to the number of hours kids will be “stuck in the house.”
While an easy remedy for boredom might be to plop them in front of a screen, we all know that this is far from satisfactory, not to mention unhealthy. But there’s an easy alternative: crafting!
As adults we may find that we are either not craft-oriented and they hold little appeal to us, or that we are quite enthralled with some type of crafting, but our craft is somewhat involved and even complicated, like cardmaking for example.
However, almost all of us can remember that, as kids, we were all “crafty” – some construction paper, scissors, and paste and we were off to the races! That hasn’t changed for today’s new generation of video game-television-Internet kids. Every child is still crafty!
And, with that in mind, here are some easy crafts to do with kids at home.
Three Easy Crafts to do with Kids at Home
Got Paper?
Most homes these days have some copier paper lying around, usually in or near a printer. And most kids have toy cars, small wooden train sets, or LEGO® sets. So, here’s an idea from Picklebums.
With some colored kid-safe markers, or crayons, your child can create long city-scapes, landscapes, and other types of colorful and imaginative scenery.
These can then be cut out and either taped to the side of the train tracks or race tracks, or taped to blocks or on pieces of construction paper that serve as bases for the upright scenery.
Ready for a change of scenery? Simply create new ones.
Heartfelt Felt Project
While you may not have sheets of crafting felt lying around like you would paper, it is inexpensive and easy to find. We liked this felt crafting idea from Typically Simple.
Measure about 3 or 4 inches on both sides of two corners of the felt and cut out two matching triangles. Lay these together like a sandwich. If your child is old enough to use a large needle and embroidery thread, use a running stitch to sew up the two right angle sides of the felt “sandwich.”
If sewing is too much for your child, a thin line of Tacky Glue® works great, too.
Decorating the bookmark is the fun part! It can be colored with paint makers, customized with stickers, buttons, beads, glitter glue, and even cut out photos. Once complete, it can be easily slipped over the top corner of the page in whatever book your child is reading.
It’s in the Bag!
What kid doesn’t like puppets? And what’s better than making your own puppet?
This tip from Country Living turns plain paper lunch bags into an endless variety of creatures, beasts, characters and more!
Using standard kraft paper lunch bags, simply paint the bottom and one side – your puppet’s front – of the bag with the color you want and let it dry. You should open the bag after painting it to keep any paint under the bottom flap to cause the bag stick together.
Now use construction paper, colored card stock, and felt scraps, along with scissors, circle punches and markers to design a unique puppet. A fun alternative to monsters and creatures can be to scan a photo of your child and enlarge it so the face is about half the width of the copier paper – approximately 5 inches.
Print it out on cardstock if you have it although plain paper can work fine. Cut out the face, then cut the lower half from the rest. Glue the top part to the “bottom” of the bag, and the lower part just underneath that, but on the front of the puppet.
Now your child can be a puppet character, too!
Have Fun and Spend Quality Time Together
Along with a huge collection of toys, games, and hobby items, you’ll also discover tons of great arts and crafts products for kids at Fundemonium. And you’ll also find that Fundemonium is so much more than a toy store – we are a fun family experience, a place where families and kids of all ages can meet and play.
At Fundemonium we provide a safe and friendly place for adults and children to be creative and have fun along with offering a great selection of toys, games, easy crafts to do with kids at home and hobbies for your entire family. And our enthusiastic, knowledgeable, and friendly staff that we have affectionately dubbed “Fundemoniacs” are dedicated to helping you have fun!
We do our best to quickly respond to inquiries about crafting products (as well as games and toys!) through our website, but you can also find an answer to your question by calling us.
If you’d like to speak directly with one of our Fundemoniacs during our business hours, you can call us at (707) 540-0701 or contact us online and look forward to seeing you soon!