Kids and Crafts

I completely agree. I crochet, loom, cross-stitch, make jewelry now and then and just purchased my first sewing machine. I teach my daughter how to do these things as well, they are truly lost arts. I really enjoy crafting, it's relaxing. More than that, though, it's really gratifying to look at a finished project and know that you made it with your own two hands.

i think crafts is important cause it does help kids develop a sense of creativity and being a mother of a 8 year old i must say that i have tried to get my daughter to develop an interest in it but she seems to always hate it. she hated using glue cause it was too messy and she didn't like playing with paper cause she didn't see anything fun in it and its weird cause all the kids her age loves it. so one day we passed by a pottery shop and she fell in love with it. she always asked if we could walked pass the store and i never understood why so one day i just asked her if she would like to step inside and she got so excited. the shop assistant was nice enough to give her a free trial and from that moment on i started paying for her to have lessons. now the house is filled with many of her wonderful clays. she makes pretty magnets and mugs and plates im just so proud of her. sorry i didn't mean to rant on lol. cheers mate.

i too have taught crafts at my church and i have to agree with you. a lot of parents just dont have the time nor the patience to do crafts with their kids at home. even though i work part time, i encourage my daughters to make things. there is only so much time that kids can spend in front of the tv or the computer.

I totally agree, Lady, but I wouldn't have crafts as an interest if I didn't craft. I did some crafting as a child with my mother, but many more crafts since I reached adulthood. I taught myself to needlepoint from a magazine, cross stitch from little kits and bead by going into a bead store and getting some quick instructions, a book and beads. I also took home ec in middle school and was taught the basics of sewing, which I didn't use until my late 20's again. Since then I have made about 4 sets of curtains (just the basic strung on the rod type) in the last 25 years. I will not say that sewing with a machine gives me as much joy as doing hand work, but I do get considerable pleasure knowing that I made them (and saved bundles of bucks doing so.) Now, I don't have children (I'm a crazy cat lady), have never done anything with kids like Sunday School, but I do think that taking Art out of elementry school and other subjects like Home Ec out of middle and high school is not doing our children any service. And the problem is that the moms of today, who would be the age of the children I don't have, mostly had working moms instead of stay at home moms like I had, and even fewer children today have stay at home moms (and those moms I greatly admire I might add) so they have less time to do crafts and stuff with their moms.

One of the contributing factors to children not learning crafts at home is the necessity of both parents working full time jobs. With the parents gone, and when they are home their time is spent in taking care of the home, interacting with friends, and doing work that they might have brought home they don't have the time to teach the children basic crafts. I have read many times that children that are involved with any kind of crafts is less apt to get into trouble or join a gang...so I would sure as heck want my child doing a craft that would influence them to stay on the straight an narrow. I know that when I was growing up I not only learned how to sew,embroider, cook, paint, knit, crochet and how to play the organ. I didn't have time to think up mischief to get into. I wanted to teach my oldest grand daughter how to sew and her daddy told her that she couldn't learn because he was afraid that she would get stuck with a pin or a needle. UHHH, she's 13 and it's time she learned how to be careful for herself. I have sewn for the past 40+ years and it was just a few years ago that I ran a sewing machine needle through my finger...and it was from my own stupidity! I earned a lot of extra money when my daughter was small, I did alterations for a dry cleaners that I worked at. I earned enough to pay for the sewing machine that I bought, buy my daughter a new bicycle, and put money aside for Christmas. All that from learning to sew when I was smaller. I would love to see the children learn the basic life skills such as sewing, cooking, house keeping etc. I also would love to see them develop a huge interest in crafts and arts. Many talented youngsters are going to waste because of not receiving the encouragement to develop their talents and share them with the world.

I always did crafts when I was a kid. It was part of the Christmas Festivities. My grandmother would watch us kids while my parents worked. Every day was craft day. She would take us to the craft store every Monday and each of us kids (me, my brother and my sister) would each pick out a project we wanted to do that week. We each took turns deciding whose project we were going to do so there was no fighting. I enjoyed doing all these things with my grandmother and when we have kids I will continue with this tradition. I think my kids need to learn the true meaning of Christmas and I feel that this is something they can carry on forever.

My children are only five years old, we do tons of crafts, not knitting or sewing but we do crafts, they paint, color, draw, cut etc, you name it we try it. They love doing art, they love doing things that allows them to be creative. I love doing these things with them as well. It helps to create special memories with my children and helps them to bond with me.

It is but understand that not all parents know how to craft. I did crafts with my Mom and she taught me how to sew but she did not know how to knit or crochet. Due to illness of the older generation she didn't get taught. I am learning though by taking classes. The real problem is that people are getting carple tunnel and arthris at an early age, this really puts a cramp on crafting. Take heart many kids mags TV shows and web site are putting out instructions on crafts for kids. I have even seen crochet patterns in teen mags. Crafting will make a comeback and be rediscovered by future generations.