Arts and crafts are a great way to unwind, relax and explore your creativity. In general, children love arts and crafts while parents just find it tedious and messy.
ParenThots found some mothers who love creating crafts and they even blog about it. They say it's a good way to spend time with their children and to de-stress. These mums are a new group of crafting and scrapbooking mums.
Merryn Tan teaches at an early English literacy centre twice a week for a few hours. The rest of her time is spent with her son Ethan, now 2+.
As a child, Tan loved crafts and painting. Naturally, when she became a mum she turned to arts and crafts as a way to keep her son occupied.
What started out as a way to keep him quiet soon became an avenue for mother and son to bond.
“Initially the purpose of introducing Ethan to arts and crafts was to keep him quiet because with my husband at work, I had to handle Ethan on my own. I almost went crazy. I didn't know what to do with him and I discovered that he actually doesn't like to be in front of the TV too long. So, the only thing I could think of was to let him play with colours.
“I can see that it has helped him a lot. He's more focused and takes instructions very well.
“His motor skills have also improved. He can now pick up a brush without problems. I don't need to assist him. Before he turned two he could already pick up a brush and even paint on his own. I also found that origami helped improve his motor skills. He also knows his body parts because I use the palm or foot when painting,” explains Tan.
Growing together
Eventually she started a blog about the arts and crafts that she and Ethan create.
Her blog is called Crafty Crafted Studio (www.crafty-crafted.com).
“I started the blog to share craft ideas with other parents. I feel that not many people take up arts and crafts anymore and I think it's dying. Not many parents create crafts with their children. As a result more children are playing videogames, the PlayStation … they are always in front of the TV or the computer. I don't want my son to be like that. I want him to enjoy things like crafts.
“I share instructions for the crafts in my blog so that if parents have the time and patience they can actually create some of the crafts with their own children. Crafts is something parents need to do it with the children otherwise it's hard to cultivate the interest in the child. The child will get bored and not know what to do with the paper or they won't know how to create the crafts.
“The most important thing, I think, is the approach. When I create crafts with Ethan we also use it as a learning opportunity so I will ask him to maybe count his fingers. I make him learn and play at the same time.
“Also, by crafting with Ethan I have created a very strong bond with him. You can see that he loves crafting and when we craft he really enjoys it,” says Tan.
Be patient
Unlike a lot of parents, Tan says she doesn't find arts and crafts the least bit tiresome or tedious. In fact, she says although she had to put down a lot of old newspapers when Ethan first started painting, she no longer has to do this.
“Not many people have the patience to guide their children through arts and crafts. Many parents are too controlling and tell their child that they should paint or colour a certain way. When we create crafts together, I don't show Ethan what the end product should look like. I just instruct him. He will follow my instructions and he will get the end result – that is his interpretation of the art.
“Some people will draw a tree and then tell the child, okay today we are drawing this. So the child will just copy that.
“When you do that they are not using their creativity; they are just copying what they see.
“I might tell him we're doing a rabbit and from there we see what we can do. I just let him create so that the end product is from his own creativity,” she says.
Tan explains that she learnt along the way to just let go and let her son have fun. She has also learned to always have a backup plan because Ethan might not always want to do whatever she has in mind.
Keeping mum focused
Librarian Chung Fon Mee of Kota Kinabalu started her blog The Daily (http://fonmee.blogspot.com/), in 2007 with the intention of keeping some simple records of her sons' development and to help motivate her to be a good parent.
Eventually, she became interested in scrapbooking and now her blog is devoted to that. Her sons' photos are the central image in most of her scrapbooking projects.
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