I love worksheets! Doing homeschool with lots of worksheets is how I roll. Worksheets help me evaluate how they are really doing with school. I love how I could look back to old worksheets and see their progress. So, incorporating crafts can sometime seem to me as a waste of time. It can sometimes make me feel that they are not really "learning" and they are just having "fun".
Doing craft really is just as important and I do have to remind myself of this all the time. Being creative, being able to express their thoughts, feelings and ideas through crafts is important because they are able to feel a sense of accomplishment. Children, especially young ones, can feel a sense of emotional satisfaction when they are making art, whether they are building legos, modeling with play dough, drawing with crayons, or making puppets out of old socks. Having a sense of accomplishment, the feeling of "I made this all by myself", helps with emotional growth, independence, self-confidence and much more.
So, don't forget to put as much thought on arts & crafts as you would on worksheets.
Here's what we did today, Styrofoam Cup Robots. I wasn't really thinking of doing craft today but I could tell my kids weren't ready to do "school" yet. So, to be honest, just like most days, I have to quickly think of what craft to do based on what supplies I already have. This is what I came up with and the kids had fun. I saw a few styrofoam cups and thought....hmmmmmm..... how can we use that? I looked around for other things we have and came up with the idea of making robots or "monsters". The kids loved it! We used Q-tips to paint as we could not find any paint brushes. I allowed my kids to do whatever they want though I could tell they are watching me create my robot and then they come up with their own.
This one is Miya's. She's 6. She is the most creative out of all 3 of them. She comes up with her own ideas, always builds and is always into creating things. All this to say..... she's the mess maker :)
This one is Seth's. He will be 5 in June. He likes to create but is not patient enough to make it look as nice as the others. All that to say..... he made this in 2 minutes and was done :)
This one was made by Levi. He is 10 and is a perfectionist. He is creative as well but doing craft could take hours as he wants everything to be perfect.
This one is mine! The best one, I think :) I actually had fun doing this craft myself. It was fun and we had a good laugh looking at each other's robots.
Have fun being creative with your kiddos today mommas!!!