Crafts to Do with Grandchildren

Upon the birth of my first grandchild, I became the shopper of toys. Stuffed animals by the armful to the extent I was forbidden to buy anymore as her room became impossible to transverse. Next to fill up to the rafters was our third bedroom, now referred to as her room. My wife finally called a halt to that room as well. And when the room got redecorated, I was restricted to the front closet. By adding another shelf on top and another off the floor, I was able to transfer massive amounts of toys to the closet, freeing up the floor in her room.

Finally after walking the aisles of every toy department of every store in the greater metropolitan area I had managed to buy at least one version of every kind of toy for children under 3 and considerable number for kids over 3. It took a year and a half and now have toys put away for when she's older. Finally a final decree was "NO MORE TOYS."

At first it was devastating to me to not even look for more toys. As the weeks went by I negotiated for the right to take her places to expand her experiences. Later art and crafts were added that were "educational", less playing more doing, as I called it. I was happy again. It soon became apparent that there were things I couldn't take her to like Les Miserables and Phantom of the Opera, which had age restrictions, but there plenty of events I could take her to and I did.

The arts and crafts were a challenge. Her attention span, after hundreds of toys where the play is automatic and the excitement built in, was geared to being entertained. Many of the early attempts were of limited success. The big book of crafts was one of them. We did most of the suggested activities, usually two or three at a time then her attention would wander. The following are things that she did like for whatever benefits you from trying them:

1) A box of 1000 popsicle sticks can be used to plan a town, a house, a rail road line, make geometric designs and with some wood glue or super glue just about anything you can thick of.

2) A PC and Word screen can be lots of fun. Let the kid tell a story as you type what they're saying. If they can't read yet Insert clip art for added interest. Let them tell you how big to make the image. They will have definite ideas about all aspects of the project. Print out final version, slip into folder with the three fold over brass holders and they want to look at it over and over.

3) Anytime, but fall is a good time, to walk in the park and let the kids pick up the prettiest leaves they see. Take them home and glue onto a piece of cardboard or other stiff enough backboard. Let them do the layout and work bits of rock or bark into the scene. Again you'll find they have ideas as to exactly how it should look. When finished hang on their bedroom wall.

4) Although not a craft per se, collections are a great way to spend time with them. Any craft store will have lots of little plastic boxes. Now you head off to the beach, park, backyard, anywhere there is stuff. My granddaughter would pick up rocks, lots of rocks. Also, in her stacks of collections are leaves, stems, seeds, pine cones, flowers (dead at this point), and bark.

5) Construction paper, colored foam pieces, string, Styrofoam, balsa wood, colored pens and pencils, and you is all they need much of the time. Remember it's you they want one on one time with.

6) Magazines where they cut out pictures of anything they want. The cutting around the object will take a long time and gluing the pieces in a collage is great for both of you.