Did You Know That There's a Big Difference Which Crafts You Choose to Do With You Children?

The concept that kids crafts is, or should be beneficial3. Choices should be available which leads to initiative
for children is not a new one. Traditional educatorstaking.
have long touted the direction following and fine motor4. Freedom to decide HOW to decorate helps develop
development skills that arts and crafts gives to children.a sense of autonomy and independence.
The bottom line is however, that these type of crafts5. Creativity skyrockets when children decide what to
have not been proven to be any good at teachingcreate.
direction followng. As a matter of fact, crafts like thisIn Educational Arts and Crafts the children incorporate
does great damage to children's self esteem andall of the above skills while traditional, copycat, arts and
other skills.undermines the same.
Many of us already know why we as parents andThe meaning of educational is not only fact
educators like to give children arts and crafts.accumulation and in this case, it certainly does not
We are spending special time with our children doingmean that kids are gathering fact while doing art. It
things they love. It gives the children an outlet for theirmeans that they are receiving skills of tremendous
creativity. It keeps them occupied. It gives teachers aeducational benefit.
way to have children remember things they learned.Children who do lots of copying adults crafts, end up
Helps the kids connect with different holidays.feeling poorly about themselves and even more about
There is yet an even better and more educationaltheir artistic abilities. They are usually the children who
method of crafts that totally is lifted out of thegrow into the adults who feel "they cannot draw a
mudane. It is a method of doing arts and crafts withstraight line".
children that raises their confidence and self-esteem,The children feel that expectations of them are very
gives them thinking and problem solving skills andlow. Little by little their confidence gets ruined which is
skyrockets their creativity.what happens if they are expected to only follow
I call this, Educational arts and crafts.robotic adult directions.This all starts in the beiginning
There are a few very basic underlying concepts aboutwhen giviing toddler crafts to young ones and
educational arts and crafts.continues on into the later years.
We as adults need to be aware of the developmentalEdcuational arts and crafts has a plethora of
stages children are at at different ages. As a resultwonderful benefits included in it that we discuss below.
children must be judged by different standards.- Children feel great about themselves as they get to
Competent educators know and understand thatcreate their own projects. When finished the projects
children develop differently than adults and haveusually make both parents and children happy.
expectations that match the children's development.Creativity is greatly sparked in the kids.
When you do crafts with kids by having them follow- Thinking, problem solving skills and initiative are used.
an adults idea, you are not only not benefiting them but- Self-esteem and initiative are encouraged which spills
are doing harm to them in many ways.over into other areas.
Good arts and crafts project should therefor, addressSo why not get started in giving the children crafts that
the following points.they do on their own, that are educational and stop
1.A good self worth is what the projects should begiving your kids crafts that copy other adults work.You
helping the children develop.can check out some educational arts and crafts for
2.Kids should be working through problems as they dokids in an e book form that closely follows this method.
crafts.