Being at home all summer is no fun for children. Parents still have jobs to do. Parents aren’t there to provide entertainment. They are busy. With no lead to follow, children become lazy. They start laying around until the batteries on their devices run out. Then they break to bicker and fight with one another while their tablet and phones batteries charge just enough to change from red to green. Peace then ensues once more as the apps take a bashing. All seems a little futile and repetitive with nothing to show for it, don’t you think? That’s why we’ve come up with some alternative art and crafts ideas for children that might both hold their attention and give them a life skill at the same time. Sound good? Let’s take a look.
Creating images and photo editing
Many people are not aware that you can “rent” access to Photoshop. Instead of buying it outright, you can pay a monthly subscription that will allow the younger members of the family to learn as they play. Every kid wants to make art. It’s an innate desire. So, why not feed into it? With hundreds and thousands (if not millions) of art tutorials online to create all manner of colourful images, your kids could be happy for hours on end learning valuable skills. See https://www.printerinks.com/5/2p-n-011/inkjet-and-toner-cartridges/hp/ for ideas on ink (they’ll want to print their creations!)
Invent a superhero
The superhero genre has come a long way since the days of dad-bods in lycra filling a two-hour slot on weekend TV, exclaiming things like ‘gee-willikers!’ and ‘zowie!’ whilst some upbeat music plays to the spinning camera angles of poorly acted fight scenes. Somehow, Hollywood has turned a seemingly unsavable type of film into the most lucrative offering that cinema has put out to the masses in the history of the big screen. Adults and children alike will queue for hours to be first to see the newest release, with earthly and extra-terrestrial superheroes teaming up to fight this year’s power-mad villain.
Now, you can’t fly. So don’t try. You can’t run through walls, or shoot lasers out of your eyes. Or lift super heavy things (unless you want to explain to your doctor that the reason for your slipped disc is that you were pretending to be ZORG THE SAVIOUR OF THE EARTH – probably best not, eh). But with a balloon, some papier mache, and some paints (and maybe some material for a cape), you can make masks and invent superheroes that will keep children entertained for a whole childhood.
