After School Crafting Prompts for Kids

February 13, 2024 9:42 AM

30 min craft ideas on a simple budget for 9yo and 5 yo. Paper, paint, and building.

My kiddo has realized in order to focus at school he needs to have a creative outlet at home.
What are engaging crafting activities I can have at the ready, on a simple budget?

They like to draw (logos, characters, comics), cut up paper, build things with tape and glue and pipecleaners and cardboard, and paint things. A little bit of sewing for the 5yo, but generally it's creative building.

I can splurge on a few Michael's kits if you have good suggestions, but I'm more looking for specific craft prompt ideas. Even if it's as simple as "save an empty kleenex box and have them go at it."

Thanks!

posted by St. Peepsburg to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (16 answers total)

Creating pop up books/cards can be an easy variation on coloring
posted by raccoon409 at 9:55 AM on February 13 [1 favorite]

What a wonderfully self-aware kid!

Perhaps Wreck This Journal or something similar? A cue from an interesting word or cool rock. Picking a number from 1-100 and drawing whatever trinket corresponds. Getting some free magazines and making a collage. Getting a simple origami book. Making a woven heart basket. Baking cookies one day and decorating them the next.
posted by tchemgrrl at 10:35 AM on February 13

There are some fun
crafting ideas in this list from London's Natural History Museum.
posted by freya_lamb at 10:52 AM on February 13

I have found that Michael's kits are terrible (which is too bad, because they can be cute). They seem to invariably require stronger glue than they provide, are missing a part, or their instructions are unclear or make no sense. Strong anti-rec on Michael's.

A friend found this book at a used book sale and gave it to me, and we've actually had some luck with the ideas in there, including, if I recall correctly, making earrings (that hang on a string loop over the ear), maybe some paper weaving?
posted by vunder at 11:08 AM on February 13

Paper Pinwheels e.g.
posted by achrise at 12:43 PM on February 13 [1 favorite]

@scholtenart is an art teacher who shows how to do various art projects based on specific artists. I LOVE their projects and want to do every one I've seen :D

I hate having to have too many supplies for a given project, but the ones that I've come back to are cheap paper plates (masks, flowers, butterflies, animals) and cheap coffee filters (you can use markers then spritz the with water to make watercolor effects).
posted by brilliantine at 1:01 PM on February 13 [1 favorite]

These Klutz sewing craft kits have been a huge success with grandkids.

We also used to do mosaics with dried beans and macaroni. You can see some pictures here.
posted by FencingGal at 1:07 PM on February 13 [2 favorites]

Ceramic paints + a white mug for each child. These typically require curing in a domestic oven after drying for 24 hours. Makes a suitable gift for doting rellies.
Make a solar system on two different scales (one for the planets and one for the distances between). Project is a tidier fit since they demoted Pluto to not-a-planet.
Paper planes are not all the same.
posted by BobTheScientist at 1:21 PM on February 13

Paper egg cartons are a fun, often overlooked craft material. With just some masking tape and scissors you can make castles and buildings, alligators and animals, and also stuff like armor or a robot costume. Easily paintable too, but we often skip that part.

It takes a while to get enough, you can speed it up by recruiting friends or asking on a local Buy Nothing group.
posted by SaltySalticid at 1:51 PM on February 13 [1 favorite]

Teach them to crochet, spool knit, or loom knit. Yes, even if one or both of them are boys. Recommend keeping it simple, with just single crochet in rows. It's really satisfying to see material develop from yarn.

All four of my kids (3 boys, 1 girl) learned - the now 28yo has done some recently, as his wife crochets. My 21yo daughter picked it up again around Thanksgiving, and is on her third blanket so far. It's one of those skills that you don't really ever totally forget, and it can keep really calming and soothing. Or it works as a "keeps your hands busy while you're listening or watching something" tactic.
posted by stormyteal at 2:41 PM on February 13

When mine were young they found it fun and relaxing to make collages. If you have a old magazines this works well. Get some posterboard, scissors and glue. Prompts like "Make a world you would like to see" or "make a collage about yourself" stimulate lots of engagement.
posted by ojocaliente at 3:09 PM on February 13

you might like the website busytoddler.com, which also has a lot of fun stuff for older kids as well
posted by wowenthusiast at 7:44 PM on February 13

If they like drawing and comics, this foldable choose-your-path comic tutorial by Jason Shiga was so much fun for my kid at that age.
posted by gideonfrog at 3:20 AM on February 14

When I was a kid my brother and I would periodically raid the recycling and claim tissue boxes and toilet paper tubes and other interesting cardboard boxes. Then we'd make houses for very small stuffed animals. It was a blast! Small recycling plus masking/painters tape is pretty versatile. And then you can paint the finished house/creation/sculpture. With my kid, we'll sometimes use the large to giant cardboard boxes for coloring (markers, dot markers, paints) or stickers (she goes nuts for stickers). If it's big enough to sit in or climb into, it usually ends up as a house or rocket or car (with cardboard wheels) or a robot (all of which we've read about in various picture books).

I got super into making pom-pom teddy bears after learning how at a library craft time. A large bag of multi-colored, multi-sized pompoms and some craft glue or hot glue and you're set to make a whole work of animals. Some bits of ribbon and googly eyes and felt or fabric are also fun for giving them more features and clothes and things.

Also, go to your local library and check out some crafting books. Librarians will be thrilled to show you the areas and many of those focus on re-using things like cardboard tubes or 1 liter bottles or egg cartons, etc. For items where you don't have enough or it's not a product you buy, ask on a buy nothing group. Libraries sometimes have take-home craft projects, too. And they often have book sales where you can pick up magazines and books for craft projects, too. Picture books and magazines make excellent collage material or you can make paper beads, origami, snow flakes, and other papercrafts. Sometimes they have a permanent corner for selling deaccessioned books/donations or sometimes they hold a large annual sale for these things. Magazines are also something buy nothing would be perfect for.
posted by carrioncomfort at 6:23 AM on February 14 [1 favorite]

STEAM is a good search term too.

I like Little Bins for Little Hands, Steam Powered Family and Left Brain Craft Brain.
posted by kathrynm at 10:03 AM on February 14

A permanently available “invitation to creativity” in the form of a box with egg cartons, tubes, interesting little bottles and plastic clamshells and other junk from recycling. White glue and a cool temp hot glue gun. Googly eyes, bits of string, bits of wire. Acrylic paint and brushes. Air dry clay and aluminum foil. A newspaper to work on. Old magazine to collage with. Some thin cardboard to fold in half for birthday cards. My lot are teenagers now but regularly Have An Idea that needs to be made.

Rummaging through the supplies and bits and pieces in your home to set up a seasonal basket (say Valentines Day with red and pink paper , flowers from a magazine, pretty paper napkin, scraps of ribbon….) The fun of it is finding what you have…

The account cardboardfolk on Instagram posts nice crafts made from recycled cardboard and tubes. And the blog Picklebums posts easy activities- lots of free printable ones, including a lot of images to put in a sheet protector and arrange playdough on top of. (Playdough is popular to older ages than you might think)
posted by slightlybewildered at 12:15 PM on February 14