Teaching Kids Job and Life Skills: Create Things
Page Updated
July 28, 2007
Content Written/Updated on
April 5, 2007
Creating things is the first step to learning how things work, and typically precedes learning how to fix things. It's an important part of developing scientific as well as artistic skills.
Teach your child to:
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Draw and color
Drawing and coloring are the basic skills a child must develop before writing. It also allows children to draw pictures of their ideas and experiences without knowing how to write letters or words.
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Paint
Painting can be as simple as poster paint on a piece of paper to as complex as painting the house. Let the kids help you on your painting projects, and give them the opportunity to paint by themselves. Teach them how to mix colors together to make new colors and how to use water and long brush strokes to thin colors out. They can also experiment with various items to use as brushes (e.g. sticks, forks, stamps, etc.).
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Glue things together
Kids will learn how to create and fix items by themselves by simply gluing things together. They'll also learn about physics and chemistry.
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Tape things together
Children can quickly learn to tape pieces of paper together. At first, they'll need help just getting the tape off the role, but with practice, they'll soon be wrapping presents.
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Make lines and pictures with rulers and stencils
Stencils and guides are excellent ways to start teaching a child to trace letters and numbers for writing practice. Stencils also help develop math skills since they can be used to make repetitive and matching shapes in various positions.
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Trace shapes, letters, and numbers
This is the official start of learning to write. Start by tracing shapes, letters, and numbers yourself. Your children will soon want to copy you and try doing it themselves. Plus, it might even help you improve your own handwriting.
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Cut paper, fabric, leaves, etc.
First, let kids just cut away. At first they'll just make a few snips, but eventually they'll make confetti and fringe. As they master their cutting skills, show them how to cut along a straight line, then a curved line, then along the outline of shapes.
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String jewelry
Making jewelry is the beginning of sewing skills. Macaroni necklaces are the standard, but you can use other materials. You can use macaroni, penne pasta, beads, buttons, things found around the yard, slices of green onion, etc. If it has a hole, you can put a string through it. If your child is ready to use a needle, he can sew together flowers, leaves, tissue paper, etc. Also experiment with different kinds of string, yarn, chain, cord, etc.
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Weave
Start by having your child weave pieces of paper together to make a placemat or background for a picture. Then try weaving decorative ribbon through baskets. Eventually, you may want to teach your child how to weave cloth on a loom or weave a basket. (It may be a good lesson for you as well since many of us have never learned weaving skills.)
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Braid
In addition to styling long hair, braiding allows us to make rope, jewelry, and even rugs.
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Make Knots
Knot tying is a skill most of us need, but we often only learn the basics, like bows and square knots. Knowing a variety of knots comes in handy for lots of situations, like tying down furniture on your car, sewing, knitting, crochet, creating ladders for tree houses, fishing, kite flying, tent building, boating, etc. It's not until we need to tie a knot we don't know that we typically wish we had made an effort to learn more about knot tying.
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Sew
Sewing cards are typically the first things kids learn to sew, but don't stop there. Kids can make simple bags, pillows, and eventually even clothes.
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Grow a Garden
Gardening is essential to the human species; it's how we get our food. You can start by making bean sprouts, move up to a window garden, and progress to yard work. Prepare soil, plant seeds, water daily, prune as needed, remove weeds, harvest food, and clean up dead plant material.
...by Feed