As a parent of a toddler, I’ve found that it can be difficult to work on a project with my child present in the room without sparking her curiosity. She’s all about touching and feeling “mama’s toys” as she likes to call my collection of stamps and ink pads, so I like to involve her in small ways that won’t necessarily disrupt a project.
I’ve also made it a point to involve her in what I like to call “collaborative effort” projects or cards that we send to family and friends. This is a great way to craft together where you (as the parent or teacher) can sort of relax and allow a child some artistic freedom yet still create a structured project in the end.
The easiest way that I’ve found to do this is by stamping an image onto white cardstock and then allowing her to “color” it in with markers, crayons, colored pencils and sometimes her dot paints. Not only does she feel like she is helping me, she feels important and proud when I show her the end product.
My daughter and I have done this for so many occasions (beyond birthday cards) that I developed our own sort of brand called “C + E {collaborative effort}” based on our initials, and even had a custom stamp created so we could label our creations for recipients to know who made them. We’ve done this with hearts to make valentines, eggs for Easter, and snowflakes for winter holidays. Receiving a piece of snail mail with a special handmade touch is a sure-fire way to brighten any recipient’s day!
Happy crafting!
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