We live in a technological age where televisions, laptops, tablets, games consoles, phones and the all-powerful internet are all used to entertain. Whilst they are all excellent forms of entertainment and even great resources for education, we do our best to limit screen time in our house and try to encourage the children to do other things as we don’t want them constantly staring at screens (at least while we can help it). Technology is wonderful but it should never be used to replace toys to play with or arts and crafts which allow children as well as adults to express themselves.
Art and craft is a big thing in our house, especially for the eight-year-old as she loves to create all sorts of things, whether that is drawing with pens and pencils, putting together diamond art pictures or cutting and gluing to create her own unique designs. We even have adult crafts including watercolours and alcohol markers for painting, drawing and colouring.
Arts and crafts is just not about getting out a bit of paper and drawing a picture or whipping out a colouring book and filling in between the lines. They are a good way to get creative and express yourself, essential for child development and a perfect way to release stresses of the day and can be done alone or with others, easily switching from an isolating activity to a sociable one and back again. It can also help with other things that you might not even think about such as:
- helps to improve coordination and fine motor skills – using pens and pencils, scissors, manipulating card, paper and other materials all require a certain amount of dexterity and the more it is practiced, the more accomplished you will become.
- improves penmanship – with the use of pens and pencils, grip and handling will improve and help improve writing skills as you get more and more comfortable holding one and moving it around the paper.
- helps express yourself – drawing and painting are excellent ways to visually express yourself and can help organise thoughts and emotions, especially for children.
- can help develop imagination and creativity skills – being creative gets your mind working with the only limit being your own mind. You can draw, paint or create and build anything your imagination desires (as long as you have the correct materials).
At Our Family Reviews we have been trying out some products to help us with our art and crafts activities (especially during a year of lockdowns and home learning), including the Science Mad Rock Tumbler that polishes rocks that can be used to make your own jewellery, the Gemex Deluxe Creation Station to create gems from gels, doll-sized mannequins to create your own doll dresses with the Harumika fashion design kits for kids, the FabriKid Construction Kit that uses blueprints to cut a wood-like material to shape and assemble into buildings and vehicles, the Little Brian Paint Sticks Classic Art Station to create your own masterpieces with the pop-up easel and paint sticks and even the Tech Will Save Us Sew & Glow Kit to design badges that light up with electric thread, combining crafting with technology. It doesn’t matter whether you are just starting out or consider yourself an expert, once you complete a piece you will have a sense of accomplishment. So whether you are just looking for a starting point, like drawing, painting, diamond arts or something else, we have reviews of items that we hope you will find interesting reading and maybe inspire you to take up some art therapy with a new hobby or give you new ideas for something you are already interested in.
