We all know that crafting is fun, but did you know it also helps teach essential life lessons? Craft projects can help with everything from strengthening family bonds to building children’s motor skills and self-confidence. Want to know more? Here are our top eight reasons why crafts are the perfect way to spend quality time with your kids!
Top 8 Benefits of Crafting
- Helps you bond and make lasting memories
- Inspires critical-thinking
- Helps parents and children de-stress
- Teaches patience and perseverance
- Builds motor skills in young children
- Teaches the importance of following instructions
- Improves STEM skills
- Boosts self-confidence
1. Crafting together helps you bond and make lasting memories
First of all, crafting together is a fabulous way to connect with your children and build lasting memories. It’s often easier to open up and have heart-to-heart chats when your hands are focused on something else. This makes craft time the perfect time for conversations about school or life. It’s also a great opportunity to share memories or funny stories from your own childhood. Of course, quality time doesn’t always have to involve talking. You could put on some music you both enjoy and just bask in your togetherness!
2. Crafting inspires critical-thinking
Crafting is a creative activity, so it often involves choices. What shape of beads will you use? Will your paper doll wear a t-shirt or a dress? Should you paint the butterfly’s wings purple, blue, or red? Faced with these choices, children must apply their critical-thinking skills, which helps them become more confident in their decision-making abilities. And reusable craft items–like this Butterfly Pillowcase, with machine-washable markers–mean that children can keep on practicing these important life skills.
3. Crafting helps kids and parents de-stress
As many adult crafters already know, using your hands to make something is a fantastic way to unwind. Crafting together enables families to put aside the stresses and pressures of daily life and focus on completing a fun project. Repetitive tasks like stringing beads (try this awesome set of 220 wooden beads) or doing the same stitch over and over again can feel almost meditative. This makes crafting a relaxing, low-tech alternative to evening screentime.
4. Crafting teaches patience and perseverance
In an on-demand world, crafting is a wonderful way to build patience in young children. After all, most craft projects take a fair amount of time to complete. In addition to patience, craft projects emphasize the importance of perseverance. In crafting as in life, practice makes perfect. Crafty kids will learn that the more effort they put in, the greater the result.
5. Crafting builds motor skills in young children
Common crafting activities, such as coloring, gluing, sticking, and cutting, all contribute to fine motor skill development in young children. These activities also improve hand-eye coordination and help little ones build dexterity and strength.
6. Crafting teaches kids the importance of following instructions
While traditional art projects tend to be more open-ended, crafting is usually a goal-oriented activity. To complete a craft successfully, kids must carefully follow a set of instructions in the correct order. If children don’t do this, they can easily see the consequences of their actions, allowing them to learn from their mistakes. Want some practice with step-by-step instructions? Check out this gorgeous Origami Flower Light Kit!
7. Crafting improves STEM skills
A good number of craft projects involve elements of building and construction. Many craft projects, from sewing to jewelry-making to woodworking, can help children develop their math skills and creative problem-solving abilities. For an especially fun activity for the whole family, check out this paper airplane craft kit, which provides a crafty, hands-on introduction to gravity and physics!
8. Crafting boosts self-confidence
Most craft projects require specific skills. Each time a kid masters a new skill, it boosts their confidence and self-esteem. And, of course, there’s no better feeling than completing something! Once you and your child have finished a craft item, you can proudly display it in your home, wear it out and about, or show it off to friends. Remember: lots of compliments and praise will encourage your child to keep on crafting!
