How To Create A Super Fun Craft Box

Summer is quickly arriving and this means kids will be home from school and the two words most hated by mothers are about to be said daily. “I’m bored.”

When I was growing up if I said these two words a rag was put in my hands and I was told to start cleaning. It was understood that it’s not our parents job to entertain us. Instead we must get creative and learn to entertain ourselves.

I personally loved the balance my mom had with me. We would have craft time, play games, and do things together often. However, she found a balance between giving me a good amount of time and attention while also teaching me to play independently.

There was one thing that my mom always had in the house and it’s something I myself am getting prepared to create. A craft box.

What Is A Craft Box

A craft box is a small tote filled with all sorts of craft supplies. On rainy days or when you just need your kid to be occupied for a little bit the craft box gets pulled out.

Kid putting crafts on a window for display

The craft box has construction paper, scissors, paint, markers and all sorts of supplies. When the craft box comes out your child can create till their heart’s content.

Teach your children to create paper cup animals, finger puppets, paint, color, or create construction paper chains. The ideas are endless.

What To Put In Your Craft Box

Why You Need Craft Time

Craft time is good for all sorts of reasons. The first reason is it helps to build on your child’s already active imagination. A child with an active imagination is a problem solver and you want your child to build these skills.

Kid with red paint on their hands finger painting with arts and crafts

Craft time also helps your child to learn about the world around them. Creating different animals and objects around them can help them to better identify them faster.

Finally, craft time helps your child to build their fine motor skills. Handling scissors, drawing, writing, painting, gluing, and any other number of skills will help your child. These small skills come in handy throughout their entire life.

Storing Your Craft Box

When storing items inside a craft box you want to make sure that everything is closed tightly to avoid leaks. This means check the caps on markers and pens, caps on paints, and caps on glues.

The last thing you want to to pull out your craft box and find half of the products in it are dried out and unable to be used. Another problem would be a leak from paint or glue covering all of the supplies and needing to replace them.

When picking a spot in your home for your craft box I recommend somewhere up high. This keeps your kids out of it if they still need supervision. This also keeps any pets you may have out of it too.

I plan on keeping ours in our front entryway closet. This keeps it up and out of the way while still keeping it easily accessible for craft time.

Craft Box Rules

There should be craft box rules especially for households with more than one child. Any arguing over items in the craft box will result in craft time being over.

With guidance from you a rule like this will help to teach your kids how to trade and make compromises with each other. This will leak into other areas of their life both together and in the world.

I recommend creating other rules like if you start to feel frustrated because it’s not turning out the way you want to ask for help. Another similar rule would be that they are responsible for informing you of any supplies they are running low on.

Rules like these help to give your child a sense of responsibility from a young age. It’s also about teaching them to inform you instead of you needing to check every single little thing in the home at all times.

Creating Your Craft Box

When you create your craft box you should organize it in a way that makes sense for you and your family. I recommend putting any leakable products like glues, paints and markers inside a small shoe box or cardboard box inside the tote.

Accidental leaks can then be contained to just a few items instead of ruining everything else. Use plastic ziplock bags to store fuzzy or fabric items.

Glitter – if you are brave enough to include it – should be stored in a sealed container. I also recommend a rule to only allow glitter outside but that’s just because I personally am not a fan of glitter.

Are there items you plan to include in your craft box that I haven’t mentioned here? Let me know in the comments below. Follow me on Pinterest for more like this and pin this to your kids activities boards.

Related Posts:

Arts and Crafts For Kids - Kids Activities and Craft Boxes for Craft Time - What You Need To Include In A Craft Box

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