Boost Your Brain

Fun Crafts for Kids

When Big Brother or Sister heads off to school, younger siblings may be jealous. If your youngster is left behind with an abundance of energy, curiosity and creativity, consider adding educational crafts to your day's activities.

"Because children learn through their senses, arts and crafts projects are ideal for learning," says Trish Kuffner, author of The Arts and Crafts Busy Book (Meadowbrook Press, 2003). "The following activities will help your child develop skills like sorting, matching and classifying. They will also learn to recognize patterns, shapes and colors."

Try some of these craft activities with your preschooler!

This simple project involves counting and sorting. Write the numbers 1, 2 and 4 on separate sheets of cardboard and collect assorted buttons. Have your child sort the buttons by the number of holes in each, placing buttons with one hole on the sheet marked "1," two-hole buttons on the sheet marked "2" and so on. When all of the buttons have been sorted, your child can use glue to create one-hole, two-hole and four-hole button collages on the cardboard.

Want to see more?

• Recipes for Fun!
• Tools for School: Getting Your Child Ready for Kindergarten
• Preparing for Kindergarten Worksheets
• Kindergarten Readiness Checklist
• Preparing for Kindergarten Discussion Board