Easy Arts and Crafts Ideas for Kids to do at Home

As parents, we are always on the look out for fun and exciting things to do with our kids. Whether it’s during the weekends, summer holidays or just to alleviate boredom, art and crafts are a fun way to stay engaged or keep your kids engaged. 

Arts and crafts rarely cost much and you’ll be surprised how long some of these ideas will keep your kids entertained. The finished products may also double as toys or decorations which is just a way to keep the creative juices flowing.

This is why we have compiled this list of easy Arts and Crafts Ideas for Kids to do at home or even at School too. 

Some examples of simple arts and crafts you can try with the kids include:

• Mosaics Art for Kids

Mosaics are a type of decorative art that involve arranging small pieces of material in a pattern to create a large piece of art. These pieces may be paper, stone, glass, or ceramic pieces etc. For kids, it is advised to use paper or stone to prevent injuries. Some materials required to make mosaic are: scissors, glue, gloves, glue applicator, etc.

Making sure to work on a flat surface, these 7 easy steps should be followed while performing mosaic art.

• Prep materials: this may involve cleaning the surface and protecting other parts of the surface from damage
• Creating base design: This may be done by sketching, tracing or transfer.
• Apply the glue: Surface by surface until completion, apply the glue and wait for it to set.
• Arrange the materials to be used: Be it grains, paper or stone, arrange the pieces in the desired pattern carefully and orderly
• Add protective sealant
• Wait until dry.

• Soap Making for Kids

This is one of the most fun and equally useful projects you can do at home. Making soap is easy and cost effective so try your hand at handwashing soaps, bathing soaps and decorative soaps. Soap making requires acid and base, and in a process called SAPONIFICATION, soap is created. 

Homemade soaps usually require the use of lye, which can be a hazardous substance to use at home. It is however possible to make soaps without lye. 

Making soap without lye: 

• Choose your fragrance: Lavender, Tea tree and coconut oil are examples of essential oils that can be used as fragrance oil in soap making.
• Choose a recipe: It is easier for beginners to use soap bases, which are combinations of glycerin, required additives and extracts, and the soap.
• Prepare the tools to be used. Some of these tools include: Heat resistant containers, a whisk, old pots, pams, a mixer and silicone molds for bar soap making.
• Melt the soap base in an old pot until it is fully melted.
• Pour in the fragrance and be sure to distribute evenly throughout the mixture.
• Quickly fill the molds with the mixture before solidification.
• Allow to cool and remove from molds.

And you’re ready to go! Several tutorials on how to make different kinds of soap for DIYers are available on YouTube.

• Upcycling Art for Kids

Plant pots or vases can be made simply from recycled plastic bottles (water or soda cans), this is a process called Upcycling Art. They can be painted and decorated as a little crafts project for kids. To make these, you’ll need: paint, plastic bottles, stickers or glitter, scissors or knife and parental supervision. 

Process include:

• Carefully cut the plastic bottle in half but only the bottom part will be used
• Paint said part with colour of choice and add multiple layers as desired
• Using stickers, glitter or other colours of paint, decorate the mini plant pot/vase
• Allow to dry.

• Make a kite

Kites are the most common and simple arts and crafts projects to do at home. All you need is some paper, string and glue and you’re off! To start, you’ll need a piece of paper (preferably colored but white works too), two sticks, a piece of string, ribbons, scissors and tape.

   First, carefully carve a small notch into both ends of each wooden stick. The notches must be cut in the same direction. Take the string and tie the sticks at the center, so they are shaped like a cross. Make sure the notches are lined up. The horizontal stick should be slightly shorter than the vertical stick. String your string into the notches around the ends of the sticks. Unfold the newspaper and cut a pattern to match the shape of the kite frame. Make it an inch or two larger than your frame, all the way around, so you can fold the edges over. Spread the newspaper over the stick frame, fold the edges over the string, and glue them in place. Tie a long string to the kite where the sticks cross. Now, it’s time to fly the kite! 

• Crocheting for Kids

Crochet is an Art which involves the technique of creating a fabric with yarns by interlocking little loops. The instrument used in crocheting is the little hook or a crocheting machine for more advanced users. In fact, the instrument is what the art is name after, Crochet which means “hook” in French.

Crochet has is quite a popular craft skill and can be used to make household decor such as coasters, mufflers, table cloth and lots more.

– Benefits of Crocheting for Children
There are many benefits that your child will gain from learning how to crochet. Here are some of them:

• Kids will feel very accomplished after each project.
• Their motor skills are sharpened.
• It gives children a good way to focus their energy and keeps them out of trouble.
• When crocheting, children will end up getting good practice in problem-solving and even a bit of simple math.
• Crochet is a very calming hobby.
• With continued crocheting, your child’s cognitive functioning will increase.
• It is an economic and pocket-friendly hobby.

• Beaded jewelry/accessories for Kids

Beads are easy to get and easy to make. To be honest if you went to secondary school in Nigeria you are probably a pro so be sure to assist your kids. There are several ways beads can be used to keep kids busy and some bead projects include: 

• Bead and straw necklaces: This involves cutting small pieces of colored straw and stringing them, along with beads, to create a necklace.
• Friendship bracelets: There are beads that have alphabets printed on them. Kids can use these beads to spell out the name of a friend, relative or even themselves to make fun bracelets they can wear everyday.
• Bookmarks or place stoppers for books
• Keychains: Beads can be used to make different, creative keychains. These keychains are fun to give as a gift, but they’re even more fun to craft!

  There are many more easy bead projects but these are just the easiest we recommend.

• Handmade greeting cards 

Greeting cards are a way of expressing creativity and emotion. A little paper, marker and glitter can go a long way in expressing feelings. Making cards for relatives and friends is a great way to have a creative session with the children AND to have a good “use” for the resulting craft.

If you are looking for some great ideas for homemade cards that kids can make, we’ve got you covered. Birthday cards, get well soon cards, kindness cards, thank you cards, thinking of you cards and general greeting cards that can be used for any occasion are some examples. 

In conclusion, we hope our article on Easy Arts and Crafts Ideas for Kids to do at Home will be of great help to our dear Nigerian parents or guardian because we understand how much it takes to keep kids engaged.

However, when all the Easy Arts and Crafts Ideas for Kids to do at Home doesn’t work easily for you or you are really not available to take your kids through these processes, you can always sign your kids up for our Kiddies Art Club which holds every Saturday at the Crafts Village Studio. Click here for more information or visit academy.craftsvillage.com.ng.