Tinkerlab is one of my all-time favorite kid craft/activity sites on the internet today. Rachelle came up with a great way to get people to start thinking ‘creatively’. Starting on February 6th, you can join her Paper Bag Challenge. You can even grab a cute little button to put on your blog…. Plus!! You can join in on a chance to win a $100 Visa Gift Card, and a three month subscription to Kiwi Crate {Creative Challenge Sponsor}. I am seriously thinking about doing this challenge to get my creative juices flowing! Will you join me?  Head on over to Tinkerlab’s Creative Challenge Page to learn more about how to participate.

I have been the lesson plans editor here at Craft Gossip for a while, and it always amazes me that there are still wonderful blogs that I haven’t come across yet!  Red Tricycle has a great list of kid craft blogs, most of which I had never seen before. You won’t be disappointed with this list, otherwise I wouldn’t have posted about it! A nice  example of a blog on the list is Joanna Does it All.

Here is a great craft for kids to make and then use during their playtime. My girls love putting our blankets on their head and shouting, “Rapunzel! Rapunzel! Let down your hair!” Head on over to Silly Eagle Books for the tutorial and book options to go along with the craft.

I wish I had come up with this top 10 list. If you have children who love fairy tales, then this is the ultimate Top 10 for you! One fairy tale on her list is Cinderella, and they link to this craft to make a Cinderella’s coach out of a pumpkin from TriangleMommies. This is a perfect fall craft. You definitely want to head over to Silly Eagle Books for the Top 10 List, and then click on all her craft links!

This idea is the perfect boredom buster that takes your typical coloring and sticker project to the next level! Head on over to Inspiration Surrounds…Creativity Abounds to see how they made a farm scene and a fairy scene.

{Photo Source}

There have been many times over the past few years while searching out amazing crafts for children that I have come across the same argument. Some parents want their children to be ‘creative’ rather than follow along with a ‘tutorial’ or ‘instructions’ while others focus primarily on structured crafts.  Personally, I think there is a place for both but I do tend to err on the side of structured crafts rather than free-form type artistic crafts because I am more of a concrete thinker. {I could probably use a little more creativity in my life}

Perhaps we need to define both…

Many sources say that something they are ‘told how to do’ is a CRAFT, and something that is unstructured with no instructions or format, ART…(source). I believe that these two definitions often blur together, especially with children’s crafts. Usually, they cannot help but put their own creative spin on even the most structured of crafts.

So now, I am wondering your opinion…

Do you prefer ‘structured, tutorial/directed crafts for children’ or ‘free thinking creative un-structured art projects for children’?

AND,

Is there a place for both of them to help your child grow and learn in different ways?

Feel free to comment as much as you like, and perhaps even subscribe to the comment thread below so you can see where the discussion heads! I know we have MANY MANY intelligent, ‘opinionated’ readers out there, so lets get chatting!

Teach Mama has a great post about what types of recyclables you should keep and how they will benefit your child’s learning/craft time. You won’t believe how many great ideas this one post alone has in it. I can’t wait to try some of these things with my children. This is definitely a post you will not want to miss!

Skip to My Lou is one of my favorite blogs that I subscribe to and love to open up my email every morning and see what they are posting about.  Here is a guest post from This Mama Makes Stuff as part of a Summer Series, 30 Days of Fun Crafts, which in case you forget to Skip on over to the blog, I will probably be posting some links on here to remind you!  This t-shirt is just one of the fun crafts you can do this summer to make it a memorable one.  This craft is also a great introduction to beginning crochet.

Glue is an incredible medium to make art. You can tell they had a great time with this craft since they experimented with so many different colors..the glue and tempera paint come out tomorrrow! The Chocolate Muffin Tree shows you how they did it.

I don’t know of any child who doesn’t like getting their hands gooey..and this craft is perfect for that!! Plus, the end result is so beautiful! Naturally Educational is a great site that has many educational ideas for  helping to educate young children.