I don’t know about you, but often when I organise a fun craft activity for my kids, they will finish it within ten minutes and then be bored because I didn’t anticipate they’d be finished so early.
While it’s important to allow kids to be bored so they can come up with their own solutions to fill their time, it can be hard going to keep their minds and hands occupied while they are on holidays or when you need some time to do errands around the house and need a few moments of peace. Sometimes you need activities that will last longer than ten minutes and often variety is the key way to achieve this.
Last school holidays, I needed an hour or so to make some phone calls and reply to some emails. I knew one craft activity wasn’t going to be enough for my 7 and 4-year-old. So I created a craft circuit of activities for them to work around, and each zone needed to have a completed project before they could move onto the next zone.
Each craft zone was created with items I already had in the craft box. And the activities needed to be simple so they wouldn’t require adult intervention.
For my craft circuit, I had 6 zones. Here is what I set up in each zone around our living area:
1. Beading Bracelet Zone
I had the beads set out and the elastic cut into pieces, with a knot at the ends.
2. Colouring In Zone
3. Cardboard Scenes with black cardboard, neon pens and stickers Zone
In this zone, the kids could create an underwater scene or night sky scene using stickers we already owned.
4. Brown Paper Bag Puppets Zone
5. Paddle Pop Monster Craft Zone
6. Coffee Table covered with butcher’s paper to write fun notes and draw pictures Zone
My girls happily went around the zones and this kept them occupied for an hour and a half.
The hardest part of creating the craft circuit is coming up with craft ideas for each zone. Keep it simple and use craft materials you already own. Head to Kmart, Big W or your local discount store to get craft activities to make it easier for you if you’re not sure what to create with the supplies you have.
If you’re wanting to create your own craft circuit at home, here are some craft activities that would be great in a zone on their own.
Activities for a Craft Circuit
Pom Pom Caterpillars on Leaves
No Comments