Craft is a great way to keep kids busy in the holidays. But more than just entertaining them, crafts can help kids develop a whole range of skills. If your child needs support to develop any of the following skills, click the links for ideas on how to build skill practice into the fun activities listed below.
Some of the skills you can develop while doing craft activities with your child include:
Motor skills such as fine motor skills, motor planning, eye hand coordination, and hand and finger strength.
Language skills including listening and following instructions, concept knowledge, vocabulary and procedural language.
School readiness skills such as pre-writing skills, phonological awareness, early literacy and handwriting.
Here are some simple, fun activities to try:
Christmas cards
Kids love to make cards and family and friends love to receive ones that kids have made themselves. It's a great way to develop fine motor and pencil skills, literacy skills and depending on the cards you make other skills such as scissor skills.
We used some of these cute simple card ideas at our recent kids Christmas party:
Here are some printable cards to colour in
Want something a little tricker for older kids, how about a pop up card?
Gift wrap ideas
We all have presents to wrap, so why not make it a fun, learning opportunity and possibly save some money in the process while developing language and motor skills.
Here are some really imaginative ideas that you can use to wrap your child's gift or that they can help you make for a sibling, cousin or young friend.
Here are some easy wrapping ideas you can do with the kids. I love the confetti ribbon made with double sided sticky tape.
Christmas cooking ideas
Kids love to cook, food makes a great giftand it is a great way to develop all kinds of language and motor skills.
Here is a huge collection of Christmas cooking ideas for kids to make. I received a pair of the chocolate spoons in the cover picture from one young client and am looking forward to stirring them through a hot chocolate!
Here is a pile of biscuit recipes to make to leave out for Santa, and you could make a few extra as gifts for family and friends.
Christmas decorations
Home made decorations are lovely to put on your tree and give to family or keep for memories to revisit year after year.
Here are loads and loads of bright, colourful decorations that kids can make, to hang on the tree or give to family and friends.
Gifts to make
Here is a huge collection of great gift ideas that kids can make to give to loved ones while practicing language and motor skills.
To build on the learning:
- Do the activity to together with your child talking about what you are doing and about colours, shapes, sizes, textures and actions as you go.
- Take photos of your child as they make the item and include it, with a written explanation in your gift, or make a slide show with a commentary voice over by your child.
- Video your child as they make the gift and get them to narrate the video to share with the person who receives their gift.
- Make handwritten gift tags and cards to go with your gifts.
- Have lots of fun!
Christmas day passes so quickly, so make the lead up to Christmas part of the fun, sharing and celebrations.
Talking Matters provides speech pathology, occupational therapy and psychology services to kids of all ages in Adelaide, South Australia. To find out more about our team and what we do browse our website and see how we can help your family.
There is also more information and fun activities on our Facebook page, Twitter, or Pinterest.
Jo Brenecki
Talking Matters
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