Crafting With My Kiddles

I have a confession:  For as much as I love sewing and crafting FOR my kids, I don't enjoy sewing or crafting WITH them very much.  That might sound horrible to some moms that come up with all this great stuff to do WITH their kids, but I am not one of those.  I craft for therapy, and crafting with kids is not therapeutic at all.  I don't know if anybody else has noticed this, but when you do a craft WITH your kid, if they're under 7-8, you do most of the craft yourself.  And what is the point of that?  What kid, once they've become bored with watching you do a craft for them, sits around to watch while you're finishing it?

Fuzzy is getting fun to craft with because you give him the idea and he goes for it.  Fluffy 1 is such a perfectionist that she gets all frustrated and gives up if her project doesn't look as good as she thinks it should.  Fluffy 2 runs ahead impatiently without any real understanding of what I'm trying to show her, so she does something completely different.  (Yes, this is great and creative of her in some ways, but frustrating in others because she doesn't follow instructions because she's too busy thinking outside the box... this translates into school, too.  OY!).  And Little Stinky is four, so his crafting is just plain limited.

My kids are all pretty creative/crafty/artistic all by themselves, so I could actually be over-thinking this.  But for me, it really comes down to trying to spend time together, and I think crafting is a good bonding experience.  So I've really been making an effort to make special time on the weekends to do crafts WITH my kids.

We've been attending all of the Lowe's and Home Depot kid activities.  Those are GREAT because the craft mess is someplace besides my kitchen table and I don't have to set it up or clean it up.  We show up, the Hombre helps and I help, everyone gets their craft done and has fun, and we go home!

 

 

Our Home Depot has been a really big hit this summer because of the inflatables!

 

 

Bonus for WATER SLIDES!

At home we mostly do painting, whether we have a little wooden craft to paint or just paper.

 

I chopped up and sanded some 2x4 scraps at the Hombre's shop for the kids to paint.  These are what inspired the more grown-up versions in my last post!

But I'm trying to break it up a bit. 

Here are some wooden clothespin mermaids the girls and I made. 

They were fun.  I had to cut the tails and do the hair... and draw the eyes.  But the girls LOVED this!  (I felt like an over-worked stylist, but it wasn't about me.  The mermaids were far more patient than their creators.  Ha!)


The older three sewed some tiny flannel pillows.

Fluffy 2 stayed home with me for an afternoon and wanted to try out sewing with my machine, so we did a little quilt together.  I did the cutting and pinning, of course, but only helped her guide it through the machine while she operated the pedal. 

So she did a lot of it and was very pleased with her quilt.

We've also tried shoebox houses.  Those are still in progress, and I admit that I'm the one who hasn't suggested finishing them.  They need curtains and I'm still trying to figure out a way for the kids to do that independently.  But the girls, at least, are playing with theirs with Strawberry Shortcake and their dollhouse people.

Occasionally I let the kids pick out some little dollar crafts at Michael's.  Those always go over well.

 

Little Stinky got some kind of wooden, bendy snake to paint this time.

 

 

Fluffy 1 got some little plaster horses.

 

 

Fluffy 2 got a little wooden pony to color.

 

 

(Fuzzy was at the shop with Daddy playing in a giant puddle.  :) )  I was sewing close enough to indulge every "Look, Mommy!" with a "That looks wonderful, Darling!" and assist when necessary.  And everybody was happy!  Go me!