With all the rain and cool weather last fall, my kids were cooped up in the house more often than not. I practically went out of my mind trying to keep them from climbing the walls. I'd like to spend this time together more constructively. Do you have any suggestions for beating the blahs?
Autumn is a beautiful season, but it does have its fair share of damp weather. As on any rainy day, keeping kids from becoming gloomy can sometimes be a challenge. Indoor craft projects are a great way to pass time until the storm breaks.
Having a box filled with basic supplies such as crayons, markers, glue, scissors, fabric scraps and notions, colored papers and paints, is an easy way to serve up impromptu fun. Along with the endless coloring projects markers provide, kids can use paper and plastic to make a butterfly mobile, cut felt to create their own storytelling board or checkers game, or develop their painting style with window art and rain painting. They can even customize rain gear in anticipation of the next gray day.
If you don't have a stocked craft box when the showers start, head to the kitchen and open the cupboards for inspiration. Besides containing all the ingredients for a batch of hot-from-the-oven cookies, your pantry probably holds common staples that can make great crafting materials. Younger children will appreciate the tactile appeal, and even older kids will be tickled by the idea of playing with food. Dried beans are the medium of choice for bean mosaic artists; noodles make oodles of pasta pictures and pasta pets; sugar cubes stack up for a pyramid and flour and water provide the basis for homemade play clay and papier-mâché.
The corner recycling bin, filled with a variety of boxes, cartons and containers, is also a source of potential supplies. Whether the project is customizing hotrods in a model car factory, furnishing a miniature dollhouse, linking paper tubes for marble mazes, or challenging themselves with a paper tangram puzzle, kids can let their imaginations go wild all afternoon.
If it's looking like a weekend of dark skies, try a more time-intensive craft activity. Projects like a portable playhouse, a corner market, or a shadow puppet stage are great fun and pull double duty--providing both a crafting experience and a toy that can be played with again and again. These crafts can also spark smaller projects down the road. Kids are likely to decide they need new sock puppets for a show, faux fruit and paper flowers to stock the stand, or a honeybee tea set for their playhouse party.
Visit the Family Crafter for even more craft ideas, tips, and online resources.
