Arts and Crafts with Kids
I love art. In fact, I majored in art. One of my favorite things to do is helping my children create art at home.
You, too, can create art in the home with your kids.
Sometimes we’ve used art to reinforce concepts we’re learning about (like Scripture!), and sometimes we just try new techniques. My kids each have an art journal to experiment in. For projects, I like to have them spend time creating work we can put on our walls.
Sounds expensive, right? It’s really not.
You don’t need professional-quality art materials for your kids to create fabulous art. In fact, they don’t need much at all. There are a few items I think all budding artists need. I’m going to list them for you (with links so you can find what I’m talking about).
I’m also going to take you on a little mini-tour of the arts and crafts for kids we’ve done in our home.
Note: Some of these were inspired by kid art sites, but it’s been several years since we did the projects, so I’m not able to credit the source of my inspiration in each case.
Art in the Home | How We Do It
Each of my younger two boys chose a major city. I helped them sketch the building on newspaper and they cut the buildings out and glued them to a piece of canvas they painted with acrylic paints. For this project I showed them how to take a wide brush, mix colors, and paint a background. When the glue dried, they used a black permanent marker to trace their buildings. I painted over it with a few coats of polyurethane. I love polyurethane for preserving projects.
This was designed as a class project, but I adapted it for our kids to do at home.
For the project on either side, the boys were instructed to paint a fanciful landscape with cheerful colors. They each chose an animal and I cut out the animal’s shape from black cardstock. We then glued the shape to the canvas board, and I polyurethaned over the whole thing. I saw something similar to this project–I think on Etsy.
The beading was done when we studied the Hammurabi civilization. Surprisingly, they both loved this and made many more necklaces for every female family member they could think of.
We used paper maché over formed modeling clay (which doesn’t dry) to make these Egyptian death masks, then painted them with acrylics. The clay has to be covered with petroleum jelly so the mask can be removed once it dries. The boys loved this project.
The maps of Israel under different kings were made using paper maché over modeling clay, acrylics, and black permanent markers. That was a pretty involved project, but the boys learned a lot about the tribes of Israel, and about how the obedience of the Israelites had a direct impact on their territory as God allowed them to be invaded by surrounding tribes. I absolutely love these maps. You can see more pictures of them in our library.
Note: I created this post originally some 5 or 6 years ago. One of my boys has grown up to be quite the artist. We did art in the home, though, to help explore concepts we were learning about at the time. The memories we made are some of my very favorite.
Art Materials for Kids
All the Art Tools You Really Need
You’ll notice that above I linked to a few specialty art supplies–like polyurethane, modeling clay, and polymer clay. These items are useful for specific projects (and I just personally love polyurethane for kid projects), but they’re not necessary to do art in the home.
Here’s a list of the essentials you’ll want to add to your home art setup.
- Every artist needs a sketch book, and young artists need one with thick pages that are large enough for developing skills (young artists need to do work on a larger scale than an adult artist). We love the Pentalic 8 1/2″ x 11″ Sketch Books.
- I think that one of the fun things about art in the home is that you can have your children create lasting pieces of art. Canvas board is great for practicing artists because it’s just like painting on a canvas, but far more economical. The fabric is wrapped around a board rather than around a wooden frame. I buy my canvas boards in value packs, and prefer the 5×7″ size for most projects. You can also find canvas panels in other sizes, including variety packs that contain several of each size.
- I think it’s important for young artists to learn to draw. To do that, they need quality pencils in a range of hardnesses. This pencil set from Derwent is perfect.
- Young artists need a pack of colored pencils, but they want a lot of colors! This set is highly rated, has 80 colors, and is really affordable. When your artists are older and more serious about their art (such as a high school student working on a portfolio for art school, for instance), you’ll want to invest in some Prismacolor or Derwent if colored pencils are their preferred medium.
- Acrylic paints are great–the cover well, dry fast, and mix beautifully. They also come in fabulous colors in craft-grade quality. For students, I really like the Apple Barrel brand. You may be tempted to get poster paints rather than craft-grade acrylics–don’t do it! They’re really smelly, thin, and frustrating for art students.
- Every young artist needs their own set of watercolors. For young students, I think a pan set with lots of colors is the way to go. We also love pearlescent watercolor sets.
- It’s important to have a nice set of brushes to use with the acrylics and the watercolors, with brushes in a variety of sizes. Brushes (like all art supplies) can get really pricey. I think an inexpensive nylon set like this one is perfect for students.
- Kids will want to mix their paints, and you don’t want them using your dinner plates! Students each needs a palette. These are inexpensive, and they make children feel like “real” artists!
- I love ultra fine tip permanent Sharpies. Outline anything painted in a Sharpie, and it instantly looks fabulous! In addition to fine tips, you’ll want to have some regular fine tip black Sharpies for outlining larger projects.
Other basics art materials for kids you’ll want to stock:
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- White cardstock for painting and drawing on. This is my favorite brand.
- Kneaded erasers
- Stumps and Tortillions (for shading pencils)
- Colored cardstock
- Scissors
- Glue
Arts and crafts with kids can be fun and memorable. With just a little work stocking art materials for kids, your family can do art in the home. Your kids (and you) will remember the time you spend together!
Bible Resources for Your Kids
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Puzzle-Based Independent Bible Study for Kids!
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” – Romans 12:2, ESV
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- Observe: They pay attention to what they’re reading.
- Interpret: They figure out what the Bible means in that section.
- Apply: They decide how the truth of God’s Word impacts their life today.
There are a great many truths in life to be found—some interesting, some boring, and some that really matter. You can be the kind of investigator who spends time puzzling out important truth so that you can know all the knowable knowledge that God has given us. That’s right. God, the Creator of the Universe, gave you a great big letter from him to explore and study so that you can discover the truths that really matter to your life!”
Bible Investigators: Creation, (The Good Book Company, 2024), page 7
The Bible Investigators: Creation Bible study for kids, written by Danika Cooley and published by The Good Book Company, is 272-pages of learning, puzzles, and fun activities designed to help your kids become amazing independent Bible investigators–observing, interpreting, and applying God’s Word as they learn what the Bible teaches on a particular subject.
Bible Puzzles for Kids
Middle grade kids, aged 8-12, love puzzles. After all, their brains are just built for figuring things out and memorizing facts. Puzzles are a wonderful way to help kids develop logic skills and retain important information. And, the book is written in a fun, conversational tone your children are sure to love!
What types of puzzles and activities will you find in Bible Investigators?
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- Word Searches
- Crosswords
- Rebus Puzzles
- Dot-to-Dots
- Logic Puzzles
- Missing Letter Puzzles
- Cryptograms
- Word Sudoku
- Mazes
- How-to-Draw Pages
- Matching Pairs
- Word Scrambles
- Journal Pages
Every child is sure to find activities they’ll love!
Elementary-aged kids need hands-on middle grade resources that engage them and equip them to process important truths.
Bible Investigators is the perfect resource to teach your kids about an important biblical doctrine, while helping them apply God’s Word to their lives today.
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