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Our Reading Panda box subscribers would know that in addition to the books we send to their children, we often include crafts for parents to do together with their kids. We do this as our four kids all enjoy making crafts with their hands, and we hope to share the joy with many more children and have as much fun together with their mums and dads!
Mid-Autumn Festival is upon us, we couldn’t help but got inspired and came up with a cool and magical craft related to the moon in form of a Flextangle! Our kids got mesmerised by what it does and learnt about the moon phases at the same time too!
To share the fun, this printable is now made available to download for all readers! Simply click on the button below to start the free download. The craft instruction video can be found at the bottom of this blog post or on our Facebook page.
Sep Box: Moon Phases Flextangle Craft
Have you ever wondered why art and craft is part of your kids’ school curricula since young, and continued to be so in subsequent school years?
Whilst doing art and craft with kids might appear as an activity purely for entertainment or just to pass time, it actually plays an important role in nurturing an all-rounded development for children. To give you some ideas, we have summarised the key benefits below supplemented with our own tips!
1. Cognitive Benefits:
- Enhances creative and innovation abilities – art comes in many forms and shapes and there is no right or wrong. Allow your kids the opportunities and freedom to create art! Expose them to different mediums and styles of art, bring them to art museums to widen perspectives (keep the visits short as kids have short attention span).
- Sharpens decision-making skills – from choosing what to draw/make to what colour and materials to use. Give chances for your kids to practice decisions making instead of dictating what and how they do it.
- Develops a problem-solving attitude – issues are bound to occur during the art making process, e.g. cut the paper too small, ran out of a specific paint colour. Guide your child to derive at a solution together and complete the art piece that was set out to do!
- Strengthens visual-learning and builds vocabulary – through handling and comparing objects, kids learn new shapes, colours, patterns and new words. For older kids, try ask them about their art pieces from class, e.g. describing how they were made.
- Associate positive response to learning – sometimes you will find crafts integrated with things to learn, such as our Moon Phases Flextangle. This helps kids learn in a fun way and associate learning with fun!
Every child is an artist, the problem is staying an artist when you grow up.
2. Emotional and Social Benefits:
- Encourages self-expression – artwork acts as an outlet for emotions especially for children whose vocabulary is limited and oral/written skills are still being developed. It is a tangible and positive means for self-expression. Chat with your child about the art piece made.
- Boosts self-esteem – kids gain satisfaction from making something of their own. Place favourite art pieces at different spots in your home to show some appreciation!
- Learns to accept criticism and praise – others are bound to comment on your child’s artwork at some point. Convey to your child that perspectives are different amongst people, and one should remain humble and respect different views.
- Strengthens the bond – crafting together is a great way to spend time together with our kids, especially when you show interests and enjoyment from it. Do remember the process often matters more than the end products!
- Cultivates art appreciation and cultural awareness – through observing art created by people from different countries or backgrounds, your child will start pick up the different styles and possibly emotions. For older kids you can share what you think about the artwork and the artist’s story and message behind if any.
The urge to draw must be quite deep within us, because children love to do it.
3. Physical benefits:
- Develops fine motor skills – simple actions like holding a colouring pencil or paintbrush, cutting out shapes and shaping clay all strengthen muscles and improve control when practiced over time. Have your child’s ability level in mind and help with tasks that maybe too difficult for the age.
- Increases dexterity – some tasks require concentration and patience such as tracing and gluing small parts together. Allow ample time and there is no need to rush and complete in one sitting. Consider putting some music on to create a chill environment!
- Improves hand-eye coordination – by using hands to complete what the eyes observed, e.g. where paint should go, where materials should be glued to etc. Let your child do what he/she can. The artwork doesn’t have to be perfect from an adult’s eyes.
Colouring outside the lines is a fine art.
As our kids get older, school subjects will add on and homework will increase, on occasions schools even cut art classes to make way for other ‘more important’ academic subjects. Let’s continue to expose our children to art and craft! This could be done anytime at home, or outside with extracurricular activities organisers. Try visit different art exhibitions when the opportunities arise!
Oscar Wilde once said, “No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did he would cease to be an artist.”
