It was a morning in early February when the thought of another routine homeschool day struck me as satisfying as eating chalk for breakfast.
We’d spent the last few months studying sentence structure and tackling new math concepts. I needed a break. We all needed a break.
So I needed to head to the arts & crafts cupboar and get to homeschool arts and crafts.
Why hadn’t I thought of it before? I could pull out the craft container for homeschool arts and crafts.
Valentine’s was coming soon.
I’d spent plenty of time scanning pretty pictures on Pinterest, now I might actually use one of them.
Out the craft tote came…
- cleaned peanut butter jars filled with craft paper,
- jars of glitter,
- plastic gems of sapphire and rubies,
- and anything else found in a dollar store.
I threw a library CD of the story of Robin Hood onto the stereo and off we went, crafting.
Back and forth between one child and the next…
- preventing glue messes,
- sparkle explosions,
- snips of paper on the floor, in the cracks of the table, and plastered to the side of Zach’s cheek.
This was all too much fun for me.
Sure enough, the kids clocked more time crafting than they would in their books, but we’d just given me a reason to speed up spring cleaning by three months.
Now I remember why we hadn’t done this before…
Fast forward just two months and we’ve done it three more times, the Alice in Wonderland birthday for Madelyn, the Little Women birthday for Hannah, and now Easter crafting celebrations.
Turns out, a homeschool mom can have fun crafting with four kids.
It just requires less free-for-all and more guidance…(a concept I’m learning is applicable to happiness in many aspects of parenting).
Homeschool mama boredom requires a change of routine, perhaps a homeschool arts and crafts routine. Here are some ways homeschool moms can make the most of Pinterest for arts and crafts:
- Create Themed Boards: Organize your Pinterest boards by themes such as “Seasonal Crafts,” “Nature-Inspired Art,” “Homemade Home Art,” etc. This will make it easier to find ideas that align with your current homeschool topics.
- Collaborative Planning: Involve your children in the process by creating a shared Pinterest board where everyone can add ideas they’d like to try. This promotes collaboration and allows your kids to have a say in the homechool arts and crafts they’ll be doing.
- Project-Based Learning: Pinterest offers a wealth of project-based learning ideas. Choose a specific theme or topic, search for related crafts, and engage your children in hands-on activities that reinforce their learning, like Writing Projects, Forensic Studies, or Medieval History.
- Adapt Crafts to Subjects: Integrate crafts with other subjects. For example, you can create art projects related to history, science experiments, geography, or literature. Search for crafts that complement what you’re teaching.
- Fine Motor Skills: Search for crafts that enhance fine motor skills, such as cutting, gluing, and painting. These activities can be both educational and beneficial for your child’s motor development. And augment your kids’ math skills too!
Also, you can include Pinterest in more than just activites you can encourage outdoor activity, field trips, and enable more onine communities too.
- Outdoor Crafting: Pinterest is a treasure trove of outdoor crafting ideas. Explore nature-based crafts that encourage kids to collect materials from their surroundings and incorporate them into their artwork.
- Inspire Creativity: Use Pinterest as a springboard for creativity. Show your kids various pins and encourage them to come up with their own variations or twists on the crafts they see.
- Virtual Field Trips: Use Pinterest to find virtual art galleries or museums that offer interactive art experiences. This can complement your homeschooling curriculum and introduce your children to various art styles.
- Homeschool Community: Join homeschool-related Pinterest groups or boards. This connects you with other homeschooling parents, allowing you to share ideas, ask questions, and learn from each other’s experiences. Join my Pinterest board.
Allowing for a homeschool arts and crafts day will encourage exploration, creativity, and learning.
As Shakespeare once said,
to craft or not to craft, that is the question
(it’s possible this isn’t Shakespeare),
To layer, perchance to mat,
Whether it is nobler in the mind to decoupage, or embellish,
To trim, perhaps to weep to wet the mulberry,
Spirelli or spin, or seal, or stick, or stamp or emboss,
aye there’s always the rub (or transfer),
Or simply dust. And what would be the fun in that?
People also ask:
- How to Create a 100 Days Homeschool Celebration
- how to encourage homeschool productivity: lessons learned from mark twain
- How to Capture Your Charmed Homeschool
- the nurturing homeschool mama retreat to bring vision, clarity & confidence
- A Little Women’s Birthday Celebration Turned Homeschool Fun Day
Teresa Wiedrick
I help overwhelmed homeschool mamas shed what’s not working in their homeschool & life, so they can show up authentically, purposefully, and confidently in their homeschool & life.
