posted by Jessica Lynette on Projects

3 comments

For Christmas my mom put together two bins of random craft items for the boys; these items (plus the additional items I have since purchased) have provided HOURS of creative play for my boys. In fact, almost every day this year they have spent at least a couple hours each day playing with their craft items; creating, imagining, and playing.

I have been working on making their supplies easily accessible, easy to clean up and of great variety so as to encourage creativity. Our system is constantly evolving, as are our supplies.

My favorite resources for acquiring crafts for kids are household items re-purposed, yard sales and thrift stores and The Dollar Tree (my favorite of all Dollar Store chains, but I am sure any Dollar Store will do.)

Here is a closer look at the crafts for kids that are sitting on our shelves awaiting creative play:

On the floor, to the right of the shelf, I keep egg cartons, large pieces of Styrofoam (from packages) and a huge role of brown paper. The egg cartons are used for collecting, sorting, drawing and ships. Their favorite activity to do with the Styrofoam is to stick craft sticks and tooth picks into it. And, of course, the brown paper allows for large drawings to be done.

The boys adore painting and when paints and brushes go on sale I stock up. They enjoy painting canvas, wood, flower pots, piggy banks, sticks, rocks and anything else we find. I keep a paint tarp in a nearby dresser and they know not to touch the paints without me being there with them to supervise and ensure they are in paint clothes. Clementine crates make for great supply organizers and is super handy to pick up and carry everything outside.

These are the most popular of the craft supplies.
From the back left we have; rocks, shells and tooth picks, feathers and wooden clothes pins.
From the front, starting on the left; plastic spoons and an assortment of Styrofoam balls, googly eyes, thumb tacks, pom-poms, wire and magnets and tape, small clothes pins, glitter, and an assortment of string.

The boys know they are not to play with the thumb tacks or the glitter without me being there with them and they have done an excellent job following that rule.

The middle shelf is home to the original craft bins my mom made up for the boys. Judah’s on the left, Wesley’s on the right. They maintain their own personal craft items in here, and place on going projects in here for safe keeping. Items in these bins include blank/old cds, craft sticks, pipe cleaners, clay and a few other odds and ends.

The boys thoroughly enjoy the use of wooden blocks with their craft projects. I found these (originally counting sticks) and the boys use them with the Styrofoam, tying them with string, and in their Play-Dough. We have a few other wooden blocks for craft purposes that I picked up at Hobby Lobby in an assorted bag of shapes and sizes.

Our sensory play bin (mix of rice, beans, and popcorn) is kept with the craft items and is great fun for them. Measuring cups and Army Men are common companions with this bin.

The bottom shelf has a bin that contains pencils, crayons, markers, white board markers and scissors for their crafting needs.

To the left of that is a bin of wool and string, and then a bin with more wooden pieces and finally our collection of Play-Dough and related accessories.

These crafts for kids allow the boys to create, craft, and inspire themselves without much involvement from me. I love that they are able to devote so much of their attention to creating things and stretching their imaginations.

I take advantage of this time where their hands are busy to fill their minds with  God’s word and we play the Audio Bible or their scripture songs throughout their crafting time.

With yard sale season upon us Southerners, and soon to be upon the rest of the country, take the opportunity to watch for items to add to your crafts for kids – you are very likely to find excellent quality items for pennies on the dollar for your little ones to delight their imaginations with.

Shared on Tip Junkie

Tags: activity, children, craft, homemade, thrifty