Growing Crafts for Kids

Few things in life are as satisfying as watching things grow. The craft of growing is often the first experience children will have of combining craft projects with simple science ideas. Kids craft ideas which involve growing also teach children that all actions have consequences. Growing things is an ongoing activity requiring continued care, attention and thought.

Egg and Cress

Egg and cress are perfect partners not only in the world of sandwiches but also in the world of kids craft ideas! Growing cress using the ‘eggheads' idea is always a favourite!

Next time the kids have an egg for their lunch, make sure the main part of the shell remains intact. Carefully wipe and clean the shell. Now pack it with damp kitchen towel. With great care, kids can then draw a face on the outside of the shell.

Lightly sprinkle the damp kitchen towel with cress seeds. These are freely available in garden centres and some supermarkets. Make sure the egg is kept warm and take care that the towel doesn’t dry out. In a few days, kids will be amazed to see their character egg grow a riotous mop of hair.

The best bit for grownups is that the egg head will need a good haircut. With supervision, this is something children can do. What to do with the cress trimmings? Put them in a delicious and nutritious egg sandwich of course!

Growing crafts often encourage children to try a variety of new food.

More Cress Ideas

Other kids craft ideas with cress include growing favourite animal shapes or even the child’s initials.

This is very straightforward. Use a simple stencil to make a stiff cardboard cut -out of the shape or letter required.

Now cover the shape neatly with some silver foil. Take some damp kitchen towel and use it to ‘fill’ the foil shape. Once you have finished arranging the towel, you can lightly sprinkle the cress seeds.

With proper care, in a few days, kids will be so pleased to see the fabulous cress shape emerge.

A Mini Garden

Introduce children to growing crafts as early as possible using kids craft ideas like the mini garden.

Start by finding a suitable container, this need to be fairly shallow, a Swiss roll tin or baking tray with raised sides is ideal.

Now the young gardeners are ready to start creating their very own oasis. At one end make a small bank of damp kitchen towel and sow with some grass seeds. Ensure they remain warm and damp so you can grow a beautiful lawn for the garden. Now it’s time to finish your landscaping. Some good ideas to try are:

• Make a pond using a piece of card covered with silver foil or layers of blue cellophane. Or try sinking a jam jar lid in amongst the kitchen towel lawn for a realistic pond.
• Anchor bits of twig around the garden in balls of play dough. If the children are creating a winter garden, leave the twigs bare, otherwise use evergreen twigs or decorate them with crumpled green tissue paper.
• Add rolled balls of moss to look like shrubs.
• Use shells and pretty pebbles as garden ornaments.
• Flowers can be introduced with balls of coloured tissue paper or use real daisy heads resting on little swabs of damp paper towel to keep them fresher for longer.

Using growing as a base for kids craft ideas is a wonderful way to introduce children to the responsibilities of caring for living things. It gives immense satisfaction for them to nurture craft projects from start to finish and provides lots of scope for fun and a sense of self-achievement.