Skip the craft aisle this Spring

You might have noticed a swathe of pastel-coloured Easter crafts at a shop near you, but you can save yourself money, time and effort by walking straight past it this Easter! 

Young children don’t need to do shop-bought craft kits to help them to develop. There are plenty of ways they can explore their creativity that are much cheaper and easier for you, and more beneficial for their development. 

Creativity that supports your child’s skills 

Not only are craft kits expensive, but they also don’t really benefit your child. Often the skills required to create a picture-perfect piece of craft just aren’t yet developed enough in young children. This can put pressure on children and parents alike, which can take the fun out of it.  

Children can feel upset if the rabbit they’ve been trying to make doesn’t look like a rabbit, as it can feel like they’ve failed. This is because they are copying rather than creating their own. If you imagine a rabbit and try to create it yourself, there is nothing to compare it to, so it can be perfect in its own right! 

They can also stifle your child’s creativity and engagement. They might have no interest in making the thing on the box, and if they were going to make a rabbit themselves it would have purple and green stripes, fire lasers from its eyes and have exploding poo – you don’t see many of those on the craft shop shelves! 

It is important give your child lots of creative experiences that allow them to explore and experiment with resources like thick and thin felt tip pens (choose washable ones!), paper of different sizes and textures (wallpaper samples are great for this), fabric, glue, wool, string and paint. Then, once you have got your stash, let them explore. If the weather is good, you could take chalk outside and let them draw on the paving, or simply take the paper and pens or paint outside. If you have any, you could use a roll of paper to give them a really large area of paper to explore. 

Don’t worry if what your child decides to make has nothing to do with Easter, it's more important that they are enjoying what they are doing and that they are being inspired to create! 

It is also very likely that your child will produce something that you don’t recognise or that doesn’t look like anything you have ever seen before! This can be tricky for parents, as you want to know what it is, but don’t want to dent their confidence or pride by asking “What is it?”.

A tip is that if you ever find yourself in this situation, rather than say “What is it?” or “Tell me what you have made”, try using phrases such as “Tell me about your picture”, “Which bit did you do first?”, “What is your favourite bit?” and “I really love this bit because...”. That will give you lots of opportunities to talk about what has been made and celebrate the process. 

Sensory experiences 

Messy play is great for your child too, as it gives them time to explore without needing to make something – it’s not setting up a ‘craft’ but finding ways to let your child play with different materials and discover what they do.   

This kind of freedom allows their curiosity to thrive, and it drives them to carry on investigating. They may not know the answers, but they can conduct their own ‘research’. The idea of endless possibilities is fascinating. 

You could start with dry materials for those who like to stay clean, such as dry leaves, dry sand, cotton balls and pom poms. (Always be aware of choking hazards and supervise messy play closely.)  

Explore with them and have fun. Being able to get messy is an important part of your child’s development, and if you aren’t keen on getting messy, your child might notice and be less likely to explore, so being prepared for an easy clean up can help with this. Have a bath ready, towels prepared, put your child in old clothes (or no clothes) and cover the floor or table. 

Think about where and when – you might decide using paint, glue and other messy play is something you prefer to do outside.   

It’s also absolutely fine if your child doesn’t like messy play or getting stuck in with paints. They might prefer drawing on the ground with a stick, or even just the sensory experience of being outside. 

Playing, sitting or lying barefoot on the grass and feeling the earth beneath you, enjoying a gentle breeze, or feeling water splash on their skin are all wonderful sensory experiences that your child may enjoy at any age. They might enjoy noticing the changes in their environment as spring begins. Can they hear the birds, spot daisies and feel the slight warmth of the sun on their skin? 

What about tools? 

You might have heard that a craft kit is a great way for your child to get to grips with using tools such as paintbrushes, scissors, pens or pencils, but ditching the tools and using their hands might be a better way to develop their physical skills. Your child could rip paper to start with. At first, even cutting across a piece of paper can be challenging because opening and closing scissors is difficult when you first start. Cutting takes practice as it brings together your child’s cognitive, sensory and physical skills because they think about how they can open and close the blades, then watch and feel what happens as they do.   

Your child will develop all of these skills as they look at and play with lots of different toys and objects, so giving them interesting things to touch, move and chat about will help them develop scissor control – even with no scissors in sight!   

Over time, they will grow in strength and be able to open and close scissors with more control. You can help your child get stronger hands in lots of ways. Climbing can be great for hand strength as your child grips and pulls, as can playing with things like sponges or squeezing water out of cloths.   

When your child can confidently use each hand in a different way, this will really help them use scissors. They will be able to use one hand to hold what they’re cutting and the other to use scissors. You can help your child develop control of movements of each side of their body through things like playing games that involve crawling or climbing using one hand or foot first then the other.   

Will craft help my child learn to follow instructions? 

You might also have heard that craft is good for helping children learn to follow instructions or sequences, but talking about your daily routines (for example, we have breakfast, then brush our teeth, then put our shoes and coat on) and following simple recipes are great for practising those skills.  

Whether you decide to create some unique artwork or enjoy time in nature together, we hope we’ve given you some alternative ideas to consider for your child. 

Your activities page is packed full of activity ideas tailored to your child’s exact stage of development which are designed to support key skills as they grow.