Promoting Creativity through Arts and Crafts

 

When our family initially started homeschooling and developed our philosophy of education, we decided that creativity was a trait that was important to us and one that we wanted to develop in our children.  According to one of my favorite books about creativity, one of  the best gifts we could give our children is to provide them with ready-materials and time.  It’s important to let them invent, create, and have fun.  It sure makes a mess, but it’s worth it!  Arts and crafts projects that don’t use pre-drawn patterns or designs allow children to create and develop according to their view of the world.  Here are some ideas for some of the craft projects we did:

• Paper mache’ — create sculptures or scenes using newspaper and flour & water glue.  After it dries, paint with Tempra paints and add twigs, stones, dried moss, aluminum foil or mirror rivers and lakes, etc.  Great fun!  We once created the Garden of Eden doing this.
• Sawdust and glue — similar to paper mache’ but using fine sawdust and Elmer’s glue instead.
• Make kites — use a plain template and paint or color designs on the kite body to make your own design or check online or the library for books and kite shapes.
• Wooden objects — children seem to enjoy crafting with wood, so we bought lots of different ‘wood’ things from the craft store and let them paint, decorate, hammer, nail, etc. to make things.  Stencils are helpful in adding designs like planes, trains, etc.  When homes were being built around the neighborhood, we would ask the contractor if we could take the wood scraps home.  They were happy to get rid of them and they provided raw materials for some great homeschool building projects.
• 3-D art using foam shapes, twigs, dried legumes, etc.  Fun to use a basic design on tag board and then glue objects on it to make a collage or work of art
• Computer art — using simple programs that teach 3D animation, computer graphics, or photo editing.
• Kits — lots of fun!  Go to Michael’s or Craft Warehouse and look at all the kits that are available.  Latch hook rugs, felt art, beading, etc. can all be fun for both girls and boys.  Boys enjoy making latch hook rugs in an airplane theme!
• Candle-making — either dipped candles, molded candles or rolled candles using beeswax.  Kids especially have fun with this project:   take an aluminum pie plate and hold a regular candle up in the middle of the plate.  Then pour melted, colored wax into the plate.  Gently dip the plate of wax in a sink full of cold water.  The hot wax will rise to the top and will ‘hug’ the candle, making a candle holder.  Work as a team, as hot wax can burn.
• String art — look online for designs.  A pattern looks somewhat like a dot to dot page, but without the numbers.  Colored string is sewn on the page in sequences that create a woven effect and make beautiful pictures — of ships or buildings — etc.
• Watercolor — really fun and helpful if you can find someone who is willing to give a few lessons first.  Use ‘cheater’ techniques to help get started with watercolor (like dot stickers that keep paint from sticking somewhere when you first coat the page, etc.).  Small paintings make great Christmas gifts for family.
• Sewing. Boys love sewing machines!  And so do girls.  Make them earn their driver’s license first (to teach machine safety) and then give them small projects where they create designs — hot pads, pillows, and other small things are fun.  Or, have them turn a t-shirt inside out and sew up the neckline and the sleeves.  Turn right-side-out and stuff will pillow stuffing.  Then stitch up the bottom. Sewing designs on paper is a good way to develop fine motor skills.
• Theme quilts — have them make quilt blocks on a theme (we made one with a dog theme and another with an airplane theme).  Use muslin for the blocks and cut them out in 10″ squares.  Using fabric crayons, permanent markers, appliques, buttons, or photo transfers (where you print off photos onto transfer paper and then iron them onto fabric) to create blocks in the selected theme.  Give grandma a block to make — and one to dad — and one for mom — etc.   Then have the child sew the blocks together with printed fabric (also in their theme — they have fun going to the fabric store and choosing something that strikes their fancy).  The quilt top is pretty easy to make.  Add a back (stitch together like a pillow case with thin, rolled padding for the middle and then turn right side out).  Tie with yarn and stitch up the turn-space by hand.  Easy and really valued by the child when done!
• Flower and weed arrangements. Make wicker and twig (or silk flower or dried leaf) arrangements or wall hangings.  Cool glue guns, fabric ribbons (printed in themes kids like) etc. all work together to make small objects, arrangements, wall-hangings, etc.  The fun is the process — and they make nice gifts for family members.
• Ceramics. We had a great time with ceramics!   A ceramics shop has green-ware that they will show you/your child how to clean (using tools kind of like a dentist uses).  After it’s cleaned, they will bake it for you in a kiln for a small fee.  Then have child apply a glaze and take it back to the ceramics shop to be processed in the kiln again.  We chose projects like gazing balls, vases with multi-colored glazes that melted and make funny patterns, chess game pieces, etc.  You can also get plain clay from them — like play-dough.  Statues, objects, free-form pots, etc. can all be made.  When done and dried they can be fired and glazed as well.
• Model rockets and model airplanes — plastic or paper — ones that fly or are used just for decoration — all are fun and teach creativity and following directions.  Allow your child to think ‘outside the box’ as they create on their own using the base kits that are available at craft stores.
• Model airplane paints work great for painting designs on stones for paper weights.  Be sure to buy the type of paint that is safe to breathe!
• Legos. For art — never negate the value of Legos when it comes to developing creativity!  So many skills are learned with Lego building.  You might assign specific projects with Legos — a complete village or building or vehicle.  Take a picture of the finished project to remember it by.
• Photography. Art principles can be taught and artistic skills developed using photography as the vehicle. In addition to taking pictures, students can start a photography blog where they post their photos. Photography can easily be used to teach "across the curriculum". Nature study, composition and writing, art principles, and human relationships are just a few subjects that can be incorporated into photo studies.

Happy creating!  Children are only limited by time, resources, and their imaginations!

Storytelling as an Educational Tool

For many generations, stories have been a meaningful part of childhood. Christian classics, from authors like Arthur Maxwell, Josephine Edwards, and Eric B. Hare have held children’s interest at bedtime worship and on many happy afternoons. The art of storytelling is a craft that broadens horizons and transports a child to places far away and too many times in history. From the pages of The Bible Story by Uncle Arthur to the adventures recounted in the audio presentations of Your Story Hour with Aunt Carole and Uncle Dan, children have been held spellbound as lessons have been learned. Through stories, the world opens up in front of them.

A story is an account of connected events that are presented to a reader or listener. It is a sequence of spoken or written words. These words can be read silently from a page or recounted orally.  It can include narrative, prose, poetry, news facts, telling, or writing. There are many ways to recount a sequence of events in effective ways. Storytelling is a natural way to teach children to write and to introduce them to literature.

According to Ruth Beechick, an educator who encouraged home education and wrote many educational books, stories can be a way of increasing a child’s knowledge and use of language. She states that parents to use stories regularly when interacting with their children can expect to the following rewards:

• Building of vocabulary.
• Stretching a child’s knowledge of things and ideas.
• Building a feel for fine sentences and larger language structures.
• Building a understanding of orderly sequence, cause and effect and other logical ways of thinking.
• Development of sense of wonder and imagination.
• Building of closeness and security between parent and child.

The first step to good storytelling is the implementation of the family story hour. Reading stories aloud to your child from a wide variety of resources sets the stage for learning about language. A home library is something that can be established and built from early in a child’s growth and development. There are a wealth of quality reading materials available for kids. Bookstores, libraries, and a grandmother’s attic all contain treasures that can provide your child with many hours of listening pleasure.

Before expecting a child to put a story down on paper, it’s a good idea to spend time teaching a child how to orally tell a good story. Children can be notorious for blurting things out in an excited and scrambled way or for communicating so sparsely that it is difficult to know what they are talking about. Other children talk without end, but are unable to bring out the main points of a story, getting stuck in minute details instead. While considering a child’s age and abilities, a thoughtful parent can help teach a child better ways of recounting events. You can start by asking the five important questions: who, what, when, where, and why? Then, ask for specifics to fill in the blanks. Details can include a request for descriptions, or sequences like what happened first, and a one sentence conclusion to evaluate and tie the recounting together in one concise thought. Practicing these skills daily with your child will help set the stage for the written story.

Once a child has had practice with oral storytelling and has gained adequate proficiency in the skill, it’s time to move along to writing stories. There are several ways to ease them into the process. Some ideas are:

• Ask the child to dictate their story, word for word, while you write down what they have recounted. Write it exactly as they dictate, making sure the words are the childs and not your own. Then, read the story back to them. Help them make any changes that may clarify or enhance the story. Once completed, many children enjoy drawing a picture to illustrate their story.
• Use a pocket chart and index cards that you’ve written words on. Separate the words according to verb, noun, adjective, and adverb and place each in their own stack. Add prepositions and connecting words in other stacks. One the chart place the words “who, what, when, where, and why”, using one word per line. Then, have the child fill in the chart rows, choosing the cards in the stacks to create a story. Start with a noun and a verb and then fill in the blanks with the other appropriate cards. The end result will be a short story that they have “written” without having to deal with the mechanics of actually using fine motor skills.
• A story starter is something that can be used to draw children into the writing experience. It is a paragraph that sets the stage for a story. The child reads the paragraph and uses it as a springboard for creative storytelling. Depending upon a child’s age and abilities, the story can be dictated to a parent or written down by the child.
• A picture prompt is another way of encouraging a creative streak in the young storyteller. Provide the child with a picture or photo that is interesting or unusual. The purpose is to spark the child’s imagination as they use the picture as a basis to write their story.

A story is a simple technique that can teach a child many things. The act of storytelling can teach, persuade, and help children understand themselves. A story is a powerful tool in the quest for positive character development. Use it as an integral tool in your homeschool for maximum effect. It will bring enjoyment and satisfaction to the entire family.