September may seem like far too early to be thinking about the holidays. But remember, we’ve got a quick succession of holidays that come starting in October with Halloween, then Thanksgiving in November, followed by the big ones of Hanukkah, Christmas and Kwanzaa in December, not to mention New Year’s at the end of December, beginning of January.
Holiday Crafts
Holiday preparation can include holiday crafts your child does at home or at school. In fact, some items, including those found at craft stores like Hobby Lobby and Michael’s are already out on the shelves and they may or may not be there two months from now. Now for most of this, it’s not a big deal, but for the little ones who may enjoy doing the projects as much themselves as with their parents, now is the time to start putting them away in a cupboard so that you have them to work on.
For example, does your child like to paint? They have these great little wooden nutcrackers at Michael’s. Your child can paint his or her own. Since painting projects can take time and deliberateness. Putting them away now to work on them in October and November, means they will be ready at Christmas time. There are wooden sleighs, reindeer and snowmen as well.
Oriental Trading Company
For school and party crafts, check out the Oriental Trading Company. They offer a wide array of crafts at a really inexpensive price that you can buy in bulk or units of 12. So if your child has a class of 18 kids or so, two units gives you more than enough to do the project with them and still have a few extras for demonstration and for mistakes.
If you are going to be taking a craft in to do with the kids at school – be sure to do at least one example before you walk into the classroom. You want to know exactly what you are doing, so not only can you demonstrate the project for the kids, you can also find work-around for the hard parts – including ways it might be too difficult.
For example, if you are putting together a frame, you might set up the base of the frame for them so that all they have to do is the decorating portion. Be sure to take into account their age and skill level as well as the level of attention they are going to be able to pay to the project. For example, you don’t want to do an extremely complicated project with a kindergarten class, but the third graders might be the right age to handle the different parts of it.
What types of projects have you done with your kids recently?
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