We all need and want quality time with our kids. No matter your lifestyle....we are all busy. I think we all strive to create quiet, quality times with our families. Craft time is a great way to spend quality one on one time with your kids. I find sometimes we try too hard to create a "lesson" to be learned during craft time.

Let's make sure they get something constructive out of this?

I am amazed at how much my kids have learned from sitting down, thinking about the world around them and then creating their "picture" of life. I have always just put a marker or crayon in their hands with a piece of paper.... They sit for 30- 40 minutes creating.... Are they learning at age 18months, age 2, age 3 by simply scribbling? Yes, they are.

Sit with your kids. Watch them create. Take note of their drawings. My 3  year old loves to take a crayon and go round and round. I note, "oh you're making circles."  Then I say "what does it look like to you?" She may replay, "a circle, a planet, a happy face" on and on...It is wonderful to watch the nature of learning. Both of my kids began printing their letters this way. I would expose them to the alphabet throughout their day...showing them the letters but never pressuring them to write. Then by scribbling. The letters evolved out of scribble...that circle became a small a. The straight lines soon became an H. I labeled their letters when I saw them on paper.

My sister- N- law is a kindergarten teacher. Her tip for reading  and writing readiness. Let them draw and color, a lot! 

I love coloring books with stories.Your kids will color or scribble the picture ( yes coloring outside of the lines is OK until they are 5 when they naturally try to color within the lines, sometime with a little encouragement....) Then read the story to them. They feel like it is their book.

  find coloring books with themes here

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