Keeping children entertained without spending a whole load of money can be hard work. At the same time, you want to encourage them to be creative, finding their own ways of being inventive.
One way of doing this is to get them involved in crafts at home from an early age. When making things comes as second nature, this will leave them in good stead as they get older and want to try out their artistic skills.
Here are just a few fun ideas that you can use to get children crafting, using standard materials that you might already have at home.
Homemade Playdough – this is a recipe that every parent should have. Take 8 tablespoons of plain flour, 2 tablespoons of salt, 60ml of warm water, 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil and some food colouring. The colour can be of your choosing. Suggest you get a few colours and make a batch if you want to give the children the opportunity of mixing and matching colours. Mix the dry ingredients together and then add the water, oil and colouring. Knead together just as if making pastry. Knead on a work surface dusted with flour until the dough is pliable and not sticky. Store in plastic bags in the fridge. This is simple enough to get the kiddies involved in the mixing and making.
Walkie-talkies – find 2 paper cups or metal tins. Make sure they are clean and tin has no jagged edges. Make a hole in the bottom of each cup and thread through a long length of string. The longer you make it, the more distance the children can have between them. The string should go from the outside to the inside and then tie a knot. If the knot will not hold, use a cocktail stick as a retainer, tying the string around it. As soon as the string is pulled taut, the children will be able to communicate from different rooms. To make this more creative, try decorating the paper cups with the children’s names
Cardboard animals – get together toilet roll cardboard inners and cotton wool buds. Use the cotton wool buds as legs and chop up the tubes to make bodies and legs. String or wool works well for tails. Get painting and add faces and decorative designs. Use a safe PVA glue for sticking
Decorative pebbles/stones – find some smooth stones – pebbly beaches provide a great source or try collecting on nature walks or from the garden. Wash and leave to dry. Now let the children choose their own stones and then decorate with a pretty design or their initials. With smaller stones, they might even want to number them and use for a stone-throwing game later, a little like marbles. Once dry, adults can add a coat of varnish if you want them to last longer
Wind chimes – all you need is a short stick or small branch, string and some pretty shells. Tie the string onto the branch evenly so that you have threads hanging down. Parents should drill small holes in the shells ready for hanging. Now tie on the shells, add a loop of string for hanging and you have a wonderful memento of a beach holiday.
All of these activities are so much fun and cost next to nothing. In fact, they are so creative that the adults should enjoy them equally as much as the children!
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