Stress-free preschool crafts! Let’s talk about it.
I often hear homeschooling moms of preschool-aged children express that they feel stressed or overwhelmed with doing crafts at home. I want to help you avoid being overwhelmed with a ton of clean up or a meltdown from your little one.
Today I am sharing ways you can achieve stress-free preschool crafts in your homeschool.
3 Tips for Stress-Free Preschool Crafts
1. Use The Right Materials
Keeping an old shirt or a children’s smock on hand for messy projects removes the need for us moms to be concerned with ruining the child’s clothes during craft time.
If your craft requires the student to cut, be sure to have safety scissors that are the appropriate size for the child’s hands. This attention to small details can make the difference between your crafting project being stress-filled or delightful.
Lately, I’ve been loving Kwik Stix Solid Tempera Paint Sticks. They dry in less than 90 seconds, making crafting with preschoolers easier. Using them also eliminates the need to pour paint. They allow us to paint without the mess.
I also love using scrap material for crafts to cut on costs. For example, we made this cute valentine’s day craft last year from old cereal boxes instead of cardstock.
2. Go Outside
One thing that helps make preschool crafts in our homeschool more fun than stressful is doing our messy crafts outdoors.
I set up a kid’s table and chair in a shaded area. Place a vinyl tablecloth over the table. I then roll out all of the materials needed to complete our craft using a three-tier wheeled cart.
We enjoy the weather and oftentimes do lunch outdoors after our crafts are completed. This change in scenery keeps me from stressing about spilled paint or glue and allows us all to enjoy our time.
If doing crafts outside is an option for you, I highly encourage you to try it. Below is a photo of my children doing arts and crafts outdoors.
3. Consider the Benefits of Stress-Free Preschool Crafts
Finally, consider the benefits of doing crafts with your preschooler(s). It can be easy to think of preschool crafts as just busy work and insignificant. That is not the truth.
Doing crafts with your preschooler gives them the opportunity for hands-on learning. This is very important for preschool-aged children.
When doing crafts, children practice their fine motor skills, explore their creativity, and exercise dexterity. In addition, doing crafts associated with a lesson or book help can help children to retain associated information.
I hope this post encourages you to enjoy crafting with your preschoolers without stress. You can check out some of my own crafts and DIYs on my blog.
Ashley is a cop turned homeschooling mom of three from South Florida. She runs The Purposeful Nest blog where she shares resources for homeschool moms and preschool educators.
