Family Crafts

One of the best ways to have fun with your family is to do family crafts. This provides families with the opportunity to relax, connect, talk and have fun at the same time. Family crafts give families a chance to spent quality time together, talk, and bond.

Relax - After a long day at the office, school or collage, parents and kids need time to relax. Creating family crafts is an easy and special way for families to be unite without the competitive pressure of peers, co-workers, play-station, X-box-games or the distraction of TV.

Connect - Family crafts allow you to connect with each other. Doing crafts with the family can inspire fun themes and activities that encourage families to talk about togetherness, happiness, relationships, party-events planning, and family-holiday-celebrations.

Talk - While free from distractions, quiet family craft time leads to great family talks between you and your kids. Feeling safe from the outside pressures, your kids often will open up about their worries, hopes, happiness and fears. Family Crafts presents parents with the perfect opportunity to sit and listen without judging.

Have Fun - Family Crafts are fun, you can share projects, ideas, family photos, family games, smiles, positive vibes and much more....

Craft Ideas:

My House
Use a milk carton cut in half and cover with construction paper. Have children add windows, doors, trees, Etc. cut from construction paper (or draw on details) to resemble the child's house. Have the children draw the members of their families (they always want to include the pets also) on tongue depressors and place them into the house. When finished the children form a town and take their "family members" to visit other families.

Dough House
The children are given a shape of a house. They are then supplied with play dough cutters that are in the shape of a mother, father, child, dog, cat and fish. The children are instructed to dip the appropriate family members in paint and then put in their home. Label the figures with the family member's names.

Special Hands
Trace the child's hand print twice. Cut out. Also cut out a long rectangle (this will be the arms). Glue one hand print on either end of the long rectangle (arms). Write on the arm part: My family is special because ___________________. Have the children finish the sentence. Also with special hands you can go to stores such Target, Wall-Mart and but packages of t-shirts that come with a set of color paints and have the children deep their little hands in different color paints and put them in the front of the shirt for Mom or Dad. This is a great gift and activity for the kids for father's or mother's day. "Hands up-down" Theme.

Theme-Friendly Rainbow
Make a rainbow of our hand prints when studying friends. Just lightly draw on the arches of the rainbow on a large piece of butcher paper. Use different colors of paint to paint the children's hand prints and make a beautiful rainbow.

Collage
Make a collage of pictures of things we like to do with our friends and family.

Family Puppets
Give each child a cut out of a person (kind of like a gingerbread man pattern). You can use the multi cultural colored paper (of course!) then the kids can decorate and make any family members they wish to. Then attach them to popsicle sticks and there you go.

Family Collage
Have the children go through magazines and find pictures of all the things their mothers do. Cut them out and glue them onto construction paper. The same can be done for dad. Another variation is to have the children cut out pictures to represent the people in their family and the things they like to do as a family.

Family Diorama
Bring a shoe box for each child.
Have the children:
Paint a background on the inside of it.
Make stand up pictures of your house and family.
Glue the pictures in your box.

Family Mobile
Illustrate a picture of each member of the family. Include the pet if the child has one. Cut out each family member. Glue each picture on strong paper or cardboard. Hang your pictures on a hanger with yarn or string to make a mobile. Print the last name on a piece of paper and fasten it to the hanger. Hang your mobile in the classroom.

Family Tree
Give them each a tree shape drawn on a piece of paper and sponges cut into apple shapes have them sponge paint the apples onto the tree to represent each family member provider will write names on the apples.