Incorporating some arts and crafts into your lessons as a parent of a home-schooled child can make the lesson exciting and the kids receptive to the learning behind the projects.
Here are three of our favourite craft projects for home-schooled foster kids.
Photo by Felipe Ferreira on Unsplash
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The Value of Craft
If you’re fostering children short-term through an agency like fosteringpeople.co.uk, you’ll probably want some ideas on hand that are quick and easy. Arts and crafts is something that can be done with many different materials you have around the house.
Adding some arts and crafts to home-school lessons is essential too, because kids need a creative outlet, and it gives you the opportunity to combine teachings from their work into fun, memorable and creative projects. It can also be a way for you as parents to bond with your kids, or for your kids to bond with each other during these lessons.
Craft projects can also serve to help kids let their guard down while they’re having some fun.
Walking Water
This is a colourful, creative project with a little bit of science. It’s quick to set up and you’ll be pleased to know it doesn’t create too much mess. Start with a trip to your local grocery store to pick up five small clear containers, three different colour food colouring and a roll of paper towels.
The project will demonstrate how water can move through the paper towel from filled cups to empty ones and balance out the amount of water in all five cups. The colouring will make it visually fun and demonstrate where the water is moving from. Have a look here for more about how to do it and what this fun and colourful project will teach your kids.
Sunscreen Painting
This quick and easy craft project is a fun creative activity with a valuable lesson behind it. It allows us to discuss sunscreen, how it works and the importance of wearing sunscreen if you’re going to be out in the sun. To do it, you’ll need some black construction paper, along with a paintbrush for older kids, and some sunscreen.
Have your kids paint a design on the black construction paper with the sunscreen with a paintbrush or a finger and then leave the paper in direct sunlight for a couple of days. The paper will fade everywhere except where the sunscreen was applied, creating a nice-looking artwork and a visual aid of the difference sunscreen can make.
Snowflakes
This one is a craft project that will produce fun and great-looking Christmas ornaments or tree decorations, and kids love it. It will also allow you to teach them how and why these ice crystals form. The supplies are cheap and you won’t need a lot.
You’ll need a jar with a nice wide mouth, some pipe cleaners, some wool, a pencil and some borax. If you want to avoid the borax, you can substitute it with sugar, but the formation of the crystals will take a lot longer, so prepare yourself for some impatient kids. Here’s a comprehensive guide on how to do this project and how kids can make their snowflakes.
You can make even the most boring subject fun when kids can work with their hands and get a bit messy, and that’s what crafts are all about!
