What I Learned from 31 Day of Useful Kids Crafts

When I started this series on useful kids crafts on October 1st, I had nine posts scheduled already and more ideas jotted down to do with the girls. By the end of the month, I was scrambling to do a craft with the girls each day so that I could blog about it for the next day. (I don’t think they minded me saying, “We have to do a craft now!”)

However, as I look back on the month, I realize I learned way more from this series than I expected to.

31 Days of Useful Kids Crafts

First, I had as much fun with these crafts as the girls did. I realized that I’m a very creative person (I did a ton of crafts during my childhood and teenage years) but in recent years, other things have pushed much of that creativity to the side. I don’t have time for this. This month, as I’ve searched out things for the girls to do, I’ve also started colouring again. We’ve all had fun being creative.

Second, they’ve learned about giving. When I first mentioned that we’d give their bird feeders away, I was greeted with some protest. I explained that we’ve had problems with rats getting into bird feeders here in BC, so we’d send their bird feeders to friends in Alberta who don’t have that problem. As we continued working on other projects for friends or relatives, though, they really got excited about giving what they were working on to the specific person they were thinking about while making it.

Third, they’ve surprised me with what they can do. I’ve tried to pick simple crafts that can be done by kids without too much assistance from moms, but the girls have still exceeded my expectations. Even Jade (my two-year-old) has been able to do many of these crafts and to have fun with them while her sisters are. It’s been neat to see them learn new skills, like sewing or mixing paint colours.

Fourth, I’ve gotten over my fear of the mess of crafting. A couple of the crafts we made did create a mess (hint: the ones involving glitter!), but the girls usually helped clean up. In fact, it was cute to see Jade helping Lily clean up something she’d spilled once. For many of our crafts, I covered the table with big sheets of packing paper from our last move, which caught most of the paint/glue/glitter from our projects and were easy to fold up and throw out when we finished.

Fifth, I’m really happy to have found so many crafts that the girls can do and keep using or give away. While some of these crafts are more decorative, I’ve really tried to focus on the “useful” and on creating something for more than just the thrill of creating (though the girls love that too). Some ideas didn’t make it into this series but I’ll keep posting crafts we do together… so watch for more ideas coming up on the blog!

Overall, it’s been a fun month. I hope you’ve enjoyed our crafting adventures and been inspired to try a few projects with your kids.