5 amazing DIY hand crafts to do with kids at home

Life has changed in more ways than one with Covid19, some of which include working from home for many adults, fewer play-dates for the kids, and more time spent indoors. 

 

In other words plenty of time all together as a family. 

It also feels like the digital world is starting to take over our children’s lives since both schooling and entertainment are offered on-screen.  And although there are great online resources for play and learning, there are fun non-digital activities in which kids can use their imagination and their hands!

Here are our top 5 ideas, that can offer long play time at home with a little assistance from an adult in getting started.  

1.  Egg carton ornaments

All you need is 

  1. egg carton cases
  2. a pair of scissors
  3. paint and
  4. string

Directions

  1. Cut-up the egg carton cases one by one and paint them with water colours of your choice.
  2. Let them dry and then make a hole in the center
  3. Pass the string through the whole, and make a knot at the end of the strin,
  4. Make a knot again before you pass the string through the next carton to keep each one in place. 
  5. You can hang them up on your wall, by a window or a door!  

2.  Woven finger knitting hula-hoop rug

This woven rug is really simple to make and encourages children develop their fine motor skills. 

All you need is

  1. A hula hoop
  2. Woven balls.
  3. If your children are really young you can use fabric strips instead of wool. Just cut old shirts in lines and then tie them together to make a long “rope” that you can then use to knit with.

Directions

  1. Take the end of your wool or fabric string, tie one end of it in the middle and then pass it above and below the rays alternately as you go.  
  2. Follow this step to create a “spider web” on the hula hoop with ten to twelve rays. 
  3. Use different colours to make patterns and have fun. 
  4. At the end cut the “spider web” from the hula-hoop and tie the ends together as you can see at the picture, and your DIY rug is ready!   

Well done!

 

3.  Bottle cap tic tac toe

All you need is

  1. Spare bottle caps
  2. A permanent marker
  3. An old accessories bag to make your own tic tac toe portable game

 

Directions

  1. Collect eight caps of two different colours and mark them with Xs and Os. 
  2. Make a # table on the bag using the marker and let the games begin! 

If you have more than one child you can even organise a mini family tournament!

 

4.  Pasta painting and jewellry

Pasta comes in various shapes and sizes. This is why it is a great material for DIY crafts for kids such as painting and making jewellry.  

All you need is

  1. Water colours
  2. Penne, farfalle, fusilli etc 

Directions

Pass them down some string to make all kinds of jewellry or stick them on a paper to make a collage or a card! 

 

5.  Box dollhouse, castle or even DIY fort!


Online buying is really convenient but has left us with tons of carton boxes from packages we receive every day. We recycle them of course, but what if we could use them to have some fun first?

Well depending on your spare time, the amount of boxes you have and your imagination you can help your children create wonderful houses for their dolls, amazing castles for their knights and incredible forts for them to play in! You’ll need of course some duct tape and scissors to attach all the pieces into place but I would suggest you then leave it up to your children to do the decorating part depending on their taste!

It would certainly help if they can participate in the cleaning-up afterwards, and this can be facilitated when making it a habit to tidy-up together in between play-sessions.  Putting away together one set of crafts or toys before picking up the next is a practical way to keep the mess contained in one space creating the habit of putting things back in their place so they can be found easily again.

These are just a few ideas.,  If you let your imagination guide you, you and your children will create amazing crafts together while having a lot of fun!  

Enjoy!

 


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