An Irish Craftworkers Good Life

Craft for Children

As Saint Patricks day approaches the children will be off school for a few days and needing some entertainment when the parades are over. In our household we are fans of salt dough, and have been having great fun, particularly with painting the items afterwards. To get started mix a mug of plain flour, a mug of salt and roughly half a mug of water to make a soft dough. When your finished making your pieces 'cook' in the oven at 150C for half an hour, then switch the oven off and don't open the over door for another hour.

Then have fun painting. We made a variety of fish and also a pot full of dough beads ready for a rainy afternoon of jewellery making in the future. These are the fish the children made, they are incorporating them into their games (teddy is going fishing!) ...

And here are mine which I'll hang with ribbon from the kitchen dresser ..

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Making Aromatic Glitter Play Dough

If you live anywhere near me then this week it is mainly going to be raining. Our favourite indoor kids activity at the moment is making play dough. But wait, don't glaze over, theres much more to it than that. Give each child a small soup sized bowl, they thrive on being 'in charge' of their own work station! Put in some flour and add a little water with a few drops of food colouring. Let them mix it, ignore the mess. Add more flour or water to help get to a nice dry dough consistency. Remove the bowls and get kneading on the table. When its all mixed up, choose a different food colouring. An adult should add a few drops to a flattened piece of dough, then fold it over a couple of times to avoid staining little hands or clothes. Now let them play with it again till the colours mix together. This keeps them fascinated for ages and they love to see the new colour ripple through the dough, and the eventual colour that emerges when completely mixed. Theres still more fun to milk from this! Now add a few drops of vanilla essence to thrill the nostrils. In a while, just when they think its all over, bring out the grand finale ... add glitter to the dough! We spend a good hour or two at this about once a week at the moment!

For more activities try visiting the Play Library.

Felted Treasure Box

I just found this wicked felting project suitable for children (and adults too!) on Kneek - pursuits of a knit geek. Its a very well explained tutorial on how to make a little felted treasure box. This is Kneeks creation ...

Loved Hearts

As you know I've been experimenting with commercially made felt material recently. I was not keen to allow my 5  year old daughter to join in with this particular activity, mainly because I lacked faith in her ability to use a needle safely! However, a 5 year old can be very persuasive, and so, I cut her out a couple of felt shapes and gave her a quick tutorial on sewing, with a lecture about doing ones best not to poke ones eyes out with a sharp needle and off she went!

I couldn't believe it. She loved doing it, she was engrossed, and she only jabbed herself once (luckily not in the eye!). I'm glad I overuled my motherly instincts and let her loose with needle and thread. I feel quite proud that she has already got hooked on needlwork at the tender age of 5.

Just Rude

We have received so many lovely gifts over the holidays and now the children are making their thank-you cards. They are very good at making cards and painting pictures to post to friends and relatives. The are so keen they do it all under their own initiative ... its just a shame that I'm so poor at getting around to ever posting them!

Its my fault thats friends, grandparents, cousins and uncles don't receive their thank-you cards. But look, you can seem them here instead!

Blank Canvas

Heres an activity for the children over the Christmas holidays. A friend of mine has done this with her kids, as has a fellow blogger, and I really wanted to try it too. I bought a blank canvas for each of the children as part of their Christmas present, only €4 from the local thrift shop. I hope to put these up on their bedroom wall, and perhaps get them to do another every few years so that when they are 'grown up' they can look back over at least 6 paintings each, spanning their childhood.

I let them loose with a set of paints, which is a regular occurance in this house. I like to give them a chance with adult painting products, as well as the usual kiddies poster paints. 'Real' acrylics, gouache, watercolours, chalk and oil pastels open up a whole new world of colour and texture, the children relish in it.

I love that our farmhouse kitchen table is caked with layers of paints from our arts and crafts activities. Its a testament to our creative energies we investigate together!

This is what my 5 year old little artist created ... 'two houses with green snow, sun, flowers, and a tulip'

And 3 year old daughter ... (this is the kind of art I like to buy!). I haven't asked her what it is yet.

To look at some more really inspiring childrens art visit Arts and Kids. I'm the biggest fan of that site and the authors own craft site The Weekend Warrior.

Salt Dough

Salt dough is a wonderful arts and crafts activity for children and adults alike. Its unbelievably cheap and easy to make. The kids love it from start to finish as it encompasses all the old favourites … measuring, mixing and kneeding the dough, cutting or modeling shapes, baking in the oven and finally painting the little creations. I found the recipe for salt dough in this brilliant book ‘I’m Bored’ which has tons of really good ideas for children’s activities. It’s written humorously by a woman whose love for her children shines through the pages. We made Christmas tree decorations and pretend fairy cakes for our teddy bears tea party.

Top tip : In order to avoid great disappointment on the childs part, make it very clear from the outset that this project does not result in edible biscuits or cakes!

Recipe : Mix 1 cup of salt, 2 ½ cups of plain flour, 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil and 1 cup of water. Add more flour if the dough sticks to the table. Apply imagination, then bake at 180C for 20 minutes. Paint when cooled.

Shrunken Heads

There are instructions along with other every day kids activity ideas at Kiddley about how to make shrunken apple heads. All you need are these things (excluding the potted plant!) ....

... to make these scary little guys for Halloween. Ours have now dried out nicely and will be strung up on a thread tomorrow.

Sense of Smell

Its time to explore another sense with our children. To find the other posts in this series click 'Kids Activities' in Categories on the sidebar. The sense of smell is a powerful gift and goes hand in hand with many a vivid childhood memory on my part. Plants are a wonderful source of natural aroma to explore with children. Visit your herb garden, or failing that your supermarket herb section. You can even use dried herbs from your kitchen cupboard, taking care not to let the child inhale the actual plant! Get them to close their eyes and sniff the herb. Try lavender, sage, thyme, mint, oregano, parsley, clove … the list is endless.

If its summer in your part of the world add flowers to your options … honeysuckle, rose, or sweet pea are just a few with heady heavy scents which will make a lasting impression.

If you’d like to make a guessing game of the process use smells that will be familiar to your child. We tried coffee, mint, cloves, soap and marmite.

I associate smell with some wonderful magic childhood memories and I actively try to facilitate this part of special memory making for my own children. On Christmas morning, before they come down to our Christmas tree to find their gifts from Santa Claus, I sprinkle a few drops of pine essential oil from their bedroom door, and down the staircase leading to the tree in the living room! Is that cheating?!

Hazel Nut Hunt

The hazel trees are full of bounty this time of year. As the blackberries begin to succumb to chilly nights, its great fun to go hazel nut hunting with the children. The shells are easy for little ones to crack with a nutcracker, and they are delicious roasted on a hot pan.