CRAFTS WITH YOUNG CHILDREN

As any parent who has ever tried to do a craft project with young children discovers, you have to make a choice.  Do you want the result to look perfect or do you want your child to make it?

Most of us would answer, “Of course I want my child to make the project!” But once underway, many of us have a hard time stepping back and letting our children lead the project. It is harder than it first seems to watch the butterflies’ antennae get glued sideways on his wings. “No!” we want to correct. “Wouldn’t it look better up here?”

And, of course, the butterfly would look better to you or me with the antennae in the proper place. But maybe not to a four-year-old. One of the perks of being four is that you can still imagine butterflies with antennae sideways on their backs, if that’s where your imagination leads you today.

A question you need to ask yourself before you decide how to handle an art project with your child is: What is the goal of this project? If your goal is to make beautiful butterflies, you should let your child know this going in. Maybe you are making these butterflies for hanging in an older sibling’s class, and they really should look like butterflies. In that case, let your child know that the butterflies must look a certain way. Show him and be prepared to correct mistakes. Some children will enjoy following a model; some children will not be as happy to follow a pattern. It is an interesting way to see if your child is able to follow directions yet.

Or is the goal of your project just to work on a creative craft project with your child? If this is the case, you should provide supplies and then let your child take the lead. It is fine to show him what a butterfly might look like by making one yourself, but then praise whatever he creates. You may not have a perfect butterfly to hang on your refrigerator, but you will have a perfect artistic creation from your child. I was always suspicious of the perfect projects that came home from nursery school, anyways. “Who made this?” I wondered. It wasn’t as fun to hang up a project on my refrigerator that I suspected the parent volunteer had made.

I have made both kinds of projects with my children, and looking back, I have to say the ones I have saved are the messy ones. These projects are a perfect snapshot of my children’s development at a certain age. Now that my children are old enough to make perfect butterflies, I miss the days when our imaginations could run wild together, when their creativity still flowed so freely.

So, to summarize…

• Figure out the goal of your project
• Make your child aware of your goal
• Remember your goal–who’s in the lead?
• Have fun!

There are many great books and Web sites full of craft ideas. One such site is http://crafts.kaboose.com/index.html. In addition, you may want to read the article Self-Expression Through Art for Preschoolers for more advice on how to use art as a way to enhance creativity.

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