If there is one thing common to kids everywhere, it would be their love for crafts. From finger painting at very young ages to building skyscrapers out of popsicle sticks, any hands on activity that fuels the imagination can hold their interest longer than almost anything. If you are looking for something fun and entertaining to do with your kids, why not explore the concept of harmony and maybe even world peace while working together on crafts from around the world. Some crafts are specific to countries while others share commonalities among all nations. To get you started, here are a few ideas.
Fun and Easy Dutch Windmills for Kris Kringle Day – December 6
For this project you only need a few tempera paints, paper cups, felt, scissors, glue and an imagination. The paints are for the paper cups that when placed upside down on the table form the base of the windmill. This is where they will use the paints to color the base and when that has been allowed to dry they can draw in the windows. The final step is to cut the blades for the windmill out of felt, pin them to the cup near the top and you have what looks like an authentic Dutch windmill.
Circle of Hands for World Religion Day
When trying to teach children about other cultures and faiths, it can be both fun and educational to celebrate World Religion Day. Unfortunately, most people know very little about other faiths so it is hard to teach children what you don’t exactly understand yourself. Actually, you can find information on most world religions on the Deily website because the focus on that particular website is to bring people of the world together by sharing insights into various faiths. Have your children dip their hands in water soluble paints and then leave handprints in a circle on a large piece of poster board. This not only is a fun art project but helps to get the idea across that people of the world are all connected even though they have different beliefs.
Make a Native American Dream Catcher
In recent years Dream Catchers have become quite popular. Crafted from circles, usually covered with leather or suede, there is a net woven on the inside which tradition says will catch the bad dreams in order to keep them from entering the mind of the sleeper. Although there are many tribes among Native American people, most have religious lore that is very closely related. As the first inhabitants of this continent upon which we all live, it is important to teach children in a fun way to respect the land they live on and the people who still have a deep respect for the land. There a number of online resources for how to build a dream catcher, but for this particular craft, mom and dad would probably do the most ‘building.’ To give the little ones something to do, parents often let them glue feathers and small seed beads onto the finished piece.
Not only is it fun spending craft time with your children but you can use this time to teach them a little bit about other people, their cultures and, quite often, their faith. This truly is a small planet we share in relation to the infinite universe, so having fun with crafts is one way to teach children a bit about our differences while celebrating our sameness. Kids will have so much fun they may not even realize that they’ve just learned a lesson in world history. What better way to learn than by spending time with mom and dad? Have fun because they’re only young once.
Comments