Pre-K: Handicrafts and Art

One of the things that burnt me out with doing preschool a couple of years ago was all the crafts. I really didn't like all the paper and glue and buttons and pom poms. The end results may have been cute, but they weren't really anything that I wanted to keep. They weren't useful and if they weren't cluttering the walls of our house, they were filling our trashcans. It seemed like a lot of work for little reward.

Then I discovered the concept of handicrafts. Charlotte Mason Help has a good article on the subject, but it really comes down to four key concepts:

1. The projects should be useful and/or decorative: if it doesn’t make the home more beautiful, it is not worthy of the child’s time.
2. The child should be taught slowly and carefully what to do; no slipshod work should ever be allowed.
3. It should suit the child’s abilities.
4. It should bless others.

Basically, handicrafts should be handy. I love this! Ever since then, I've tried to find something to do with the boys that is lovely and something that we want to show off. Of course, the boys are still young so some of the ideas that I've found for handicrafts they are not yet able to do or at least they need help doing them. Yet, at the end of it, we have something that we can be proud of and use.

Here are some of our handicrafts we've done...

We made birdhouses!

And Crockpot Applesauce! (We actually do this about once a week).

We decorated our flower press and pressed flowers. (Later we made bookmarks with said pressed flowers).

Did a woodshop helicopter project kit from the Dollar Tree.

And made fabric pumpkins to display on our mantle!

We don't always do projects like this though. We also get out our paints and crayons and chalk pastels to do art projects. I find this to be different from our handicrafts though. We can enjoy both, but I don't usually plan out our art projects and they happen more on a whim.

Markers

Pastels

Cutting

Painting

Apple Printing

We also have been doing a little artist study. This term, Ambleside Online is studying Renoir so we've talked a little about him. We have a couple of books that we've read about his life, and we are displaying some of his works above the kids table. We aren't making it much of a priority right now, but it is still fun to have around.

Renoir Painting of In the Meadow from my daily art calendar

The Internet is a fabulous place to find ideas for handicrafts and other art projects. Below are some of my favorites for trying to keep myself on track.

Handicrafts