Today, I have the lovely Becky guest posting about Christmas crafts with children. Becky (who I used to go to school with) is a childminder but has also recently started running Arty Crafty Toddler classes in her local area of Ewell, Surrey which has proved to be very popular! She shares with us some of her ideas for getting crafty with the children.

Christmas is the perfect time for arts and crafts. It’s a time for baking, making decorations and of course, not forgetting the glitter!

These activities can be difficult to plan when you have a variety of ages and limited time or space. I’m a mummy and childminder and have often found that the preparation and clean up takes up far more of my time than the activity itself.

One activity that is proving popular with all ages is homemade playdough which is very quick to make. I’ve adapted mine to give it a Christmas theme so I’ve made gingerbread play dough by adding food colouring and spices or how about snow playdough which is white and covered in glitter. If you have carpet then art mats or cheap dust sheets are a must.

Another winner is reindeer food which is oats and glitter (you can buy edible ones for younger children). Once they have made little bags, it’s a nice sensory experience. Frozen characters or Happy Land Christmas sets are always popular in my oats mixture. Coloured rice is another favourite and again so easy but expect it to go everywhere.

A firm favourite with children is Painting. I don’t know about you, but some parents say that this is the activity they do the least at home due to the mess. If you pop along to one of my classes then there will be no clearing up for you!

When planning activities, I firstly look to see if my children have any allergies.  I then look at the age of the child and whether the activity needs to be “taste safe”. Children learn through taste and therefore will put things in their mouths. I think about activities that a parent could do with a baby and older child, for example, yoghurt painting, cornflour play or cereal play. I can’t take all the credit for my ideas, I have a great source of help from other messy play providers and Pinterest is amazing.

We all want Christmas crafts to look beautiful but it’s important to let children feel relaxed in their creativity and not feel that they have to make something perfect and the same as everyone else.

Parents also need to feel comfortable when planning activities. If you won’t enjoy having paint everywhere then that’s ok. Leave that to the messy play classes and do what you feel comfortable with.

It needs to be fun for everyone.

Thank you for some great ideas to try out at home Becky. I really like the idea of the Gingerbread Playdough!

Becky runs her Arty Crafty Toddler Classes in Ewell Village, Surrey. Classes are term time-time only and run every Monday at Glyn Hall from 10-11am and the first Thursday of every month at All Things Nice also at 10-11am.

For more information on Arty Crafty Toddler classes check out the Facebook page or follow Becky on Twitter.

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