We all know that art and craft projects are fun, while also benefiting a child with the same value as a quality educational toy. But what exactly is behind the importance of arts and crafts for kids?
The benefits of pursuing creative arts and crafts doesn’t just stop with physical benefits, but also provides strong mental and educational benefits – and not just for kids! Here is a list of 14 (yes, 14!) benefits provided by different arts and crafts projects:
The Benefits of Arts and Crafts for Kids
The physical benefits:
Fine motor skills
Most art projects involve accurately moving the hands and fingers, improving muscle strength and control with fine motor movements.
Arts and crafts increase manual dexterity and also agility. With time and practice, they become much faster at performing more precise skills.
Almost all art must link your hand’s coordination with your eye. This skill is particularly important to develop early in life, and greatly helps with improving kid’s sporting skills.
The mental benefits:
Art and craft activities give kids a much needed sense of achievement and pride, which in turn builds their self-confidence.
A lot of art involves actively practicing patience, whether it is waiting for glue to dry, or being willing to try and make mistakes so you can improve.
Creative activities are one of the only true ways to ‘express yourself’. These activities can help to bring out the hidden emotions of introverted children, while also being able to express and form their own individual identity.
Arts and crafts can often involve social interaction with other children, whether it be with parents joining in on projects or socialising with kids with similar interests. It is an avenue to build and strengthen friendships.
There aren’t many activities that can ‘truly entertain’ children and adults in equal capacities, but arts and crafts is among these. They are a great way to strengthen, or begin parent-child relationships.
The educational benefits:
Of course! There’s no surprise here. Arts and crafts are one of the best avenues of exploring early childhood creativity and self expression.
Kids learn about shapes, colours, symmetry and patterns through practicing art. Seom crafts involve visualising and producing designs, which greatly put their memory into practice.
Decision making skills
Artistic challenges are some of the hardest to solve and involve kids to make quick and correct decisions. This will improve their ability to face other problems and make quick decisions when they inevitably come.
Unlike math, art and crafts can be achieved in more than one way. There are no correct answers, techniques or results – teaching kids that they can achieve great results from outside of the box thinking and alternative methods.
Art is designed to be shared, and kids must put their literacy skills into practice by speaking, reading and listening when communicating about their work. Parent feedback can provide them with new words and concepts to incorporate into their vocabulary.
Although math isn’t usually associated with arts and crafts, kids will often need to learn how to measure lengths and sizes, and count to create symmetry.
Top Recommendations – Arts and Crafts for Kids
Here is a list of our absolute favourite arts and crafts toys that are great for introducing children to the world of creativity!
Showing 13–24 of 48 results
Melissa and Doug Decorate Your Own Wooden Train$15.00 AUD
Djeco Button Cards Adventure In The Woods$31.00 AUD
Melissa and Doug Stamp Marker Activity Pad Pink$15.00 AUD
Melissa and Doug Princess Mirror DYOAUD
Melissa and Doug Princess Alyssa Magnetic Dress-Up$19.95 AUD
Melissa and Doug Reusable Puffy Sticker Play Set – Mermaid$6.95 AUD
Djeco Fairie Puppets Paper Craft$0.00 AUD
Djeco Dinosaur Puppets Paper Craft$9.95 AUD
Galt Friendship Bracelets$19.95 AUD
Galt Bouncy Balls$19.95 AUD
Melissa and Doug Friendship Stamp Set$25.00 AUD