Crafting Builds Confidence and Self Esteem in Children

 Essential Crafting Skills That Every Child Should Learn

Art and crafting activities have positive mental and physical benefits. Studies show that when children work together on craft projects, they build language skills as they create together, and more easily understand the perspective of others. Crafting also helps cultivate a child’s sense of achievement, building confidence and self-esteem through creation and experimentation.

In addition to learning important skills, supporting your child with creative outlets for free expression is good for their overall well being and health. Crafting is a wonderful way to relieve stress and offer space to learn to experiment and create. With a few simple supplies and an open mind, children will have a lot of fun while learning to enjoy crafting, all while developing a wide range of important skills. Here are some recommendations for teaching essential crafting skills to your children.

Junk Modeling

Open-ended art projects encourage the development of critical thinking skills. As a child makes a mental plan for what they want to make, they are building visual-spatial skills and exercising both right and left brain function. Designing models and sculpture helps children learn to evaluate shapes. An assortment of containers, wires, plastic, and random bits of household junk can be transformed into robots, toys, or mobiles. Provide glue and tape to help secure the pieces together, and paint and decorations for embellishing the model.

Help them turn a box into a pretend stove.

Sewing

Hand sewing tasks, like threading a needle or tying a knot, help improve hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills. As noted by the Philly Art Center, the small muscles in a child’s fingers, wrists, and hands are strengthened through arts and crafts activities, which helps to make learning to write easier. Older children may enjoy designing costumes or simple bags. Providing a sewing machine for children is a creative and fulfilling way to encourage artistic expression. Math skills, including spatial reasoning, measurement taking, and shapes are skills that can be learned through pattern making and design. Offer to host a fashion show for children to share and reflect on their creations.

What are the Cognitive Benefits of Crafts?

Making A Collage

Teaching crafting skills like cutting with scissors and drawing encourages the development of fine motor muscles. Suggest a collage theme and set a table with an assortment of papers, magazines, fabrics, leftover crafting supplies, and glue. Children will also learn about dimension and composition, gaining concentration skills as they assemble materials to create their art. Encourage children as they create unstructured work, focusing on the process and exploring the creation of art rather than the end product.

String Art

Children who engage with creative activities exercise and develop a creative mindset, learning there can be many ways to complete a task. With yarn, flat top nails or pins, and a bit of scrap wood or cardboard, kids will build skills like measuring and the steps involved in creating geometric and linear art. Patience and imagination will be stretched as they figure out how to transfer their ideas to the surface. Older children can be challenged to make elaborate templates or intricate designs with parabolic curves and repeating patterns. Dr. Kerry Freeman (Head of Art & Design Education, Northern Illinois University) adds that when kids engage in crafting and art for expression and are given the ability to take risks, they are developing lifelong innovation skills that will contribute to their success academically and as adults.

Learning essential crafting skills has so many benefits for your child, contributing to both their physical and emotional development as they grow. Plan to engage your child with age-appropriate creative activities every week. Enjoy spending family time together to teach these essential crafting skills to your child, it’s a wonderful opportunity to bond and create memories.

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Pick a Collage Project from this list

Benefits of Extra Curriculars for Kids with Disabilities ad Special Needs

Summer Messy Play Activities for Preschoolers

Fun In The Sun - 6 Tips For Creating A Mud Kitchen For Your Kids

Kids love mud! And as dirty as they may get, it’s time to advocate messy play so they can learn new skills the fun way. The fastest and easiest way to encourage your kids to get outdoors is to build them a mud kitchen.They'll be tripping over each other to get outside

Building your own mud kitchen is a creative, cost-effective way of enabling messy play for your kids while saving money on an expensive play kitchen. 

You can build your mud kitchen in your own way, and in the end, your kids will have the perfect environment in which to get their hands dirty anytime.

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Photo: Jelleke Vanooteghem/Unsplash

Six tips to create your own mud kitchen

1. Use What You’ve Got

Poke around your garage and see what you can recycle to save money on your mud kitchen. You can use wood, recycled pallets, and old timber for the construction. Old cookware and bakeware, utensils, and decorations can also be used to finish out the kitchen,

Remember, the idea is to ignite your child’s imagination, so your DIY mud kitchen doesn’t need to resemble a brand-new toy kitchen set. 

2. Stove Tops Add to The Fun

While it’s great to leave some things up to the imagination, it’s a good idea to make your play kitchen resemble a real kitchen by creating a stove top. You can paint the burners on a piece of timber or wood, and you can even add broken or thrifted appliances to your outdoor kitchen to enhance its appearance. You can also use good, old cardboard to create a play stove.

3. Bake Mud Cakes

The fun part of having a mud kitchen is that your kids get to play with mud and get as dirty as they want. All you need to make mud cakes is some sand or soil and water. You can use old cookware and bake ware to contain them and shape them like cakes and cupcakes.

Parents can get involved by showing kids how to create funky-shaped cookies with cookie cutters and molds or add colored pasta to the mud for added texture. This kind of sensory play is an important part of childhood development, but above all, it’s a whole lot of fun.

Pistachio Pudding Play Dough

4. Set the Table

A mud kitchen is a fun way to teach your child table manners. Guide your preschoolers through setting a table and laying out the dishes. Show them the way to arrange cutlery and allow your children to bring some garden leaves to create napkins for a rustic table setting.

5. Add a Sink

Since you’ve introduced messy play to your preschoolers with colored pasta and mud cakes, it’s a good idea to take care of the cleanup. The most logical way to do this is to add a sink to your mud kitchen! To create your sink, use a silver or grey bucket and fill it with water or a big flower put with the bottom plugged works nicely too.

Add a hose in the bucket so that there’s an accessible faucet. This is a great way to teach children how to clean up after themselves. Add some dish washing liquid and a sponge so you can wash all the cookware the kids used before bringing it back into the house!

How to Make your own Dish Washing Soap

6. Dress For The Occasion

Every chef needs a chef’s hat and apron, so make sure to get these for your child. They will love it! Plus, the apron will offer some protection from mud splatter while playing. Rubber boots are a good idea too. Preschool age kids and toddlers love to wear galoshes!

How to Make your own Chef Hat

 

Have fun with your kiddos and their mud kitchen. You may want to wear some rubber boots yourself! Encourage your children to enjoy free and imaginative play, and you can bet they’ll learn tons of kitchen tricks in the process. Pretend play is the best way to learn!

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Pretend Play and Play Date Ideas from Adventures of Kids Creative Chaos

Fun Books about Galoshes from Amazon

Treating the Gut to Improve Autism Spectrum Disorders

Gut Health and Autism

It is true that autism is generally not curable, but in most cases, people try different therapies to improve autism spectrum disorders. Therapies like occupational therapy, speech therapy, and applied behavioral analysis are the most common ways to treat autism and reduce the effects of autism, but treating the gut can help too!

This GUEST POST contains Amazon and other affiliate links. The information in this post is not written by a medical doctor, be sure to contact your physician before starting any new treatments.

Is anything more important for autism than brain foods? Yes, some foods like fatty fish, milk, egg, nuts, chocolates, and others may help the brain develop and increase its functionality. However, that is also challenging as many autistic children have weakened digestive health and may suffer from irritable bowel syndrome.

Why do many children with autism suffer from weakened gut conditions? Our brains have strong correlations with the gut. Autism can impair brain and gut development. Improving the gut can improve brain development, meaning alleviation from some of the symptoms of autistic spectrum disorder and other sensory processing disorders. 

Gut Treatments for Autism

There are many suggested treatments for improving gut function. Below are some popular options for autism that you may want to try.

1. Use of Probiotics and Prebiotics

Probiotics are good bacteria that aid our digestion and improve the immune system. Some of the common beneficial bacteria include bifidobacteria, lactobacilli, and saccharomycetes. Autism probiotics are an effective treatment since the good bacteria kills the bad ones and helps provide more helpful benefits for the gut. 

On the other hand, prebiotics are food components that boost growth to these beneficial bacterias in the gut. Probiotics are common in food items like kimchi, kefir, miso, and yogurt, while prebiotics is common in items like garlic, onions, bananas, asparagus, leeks, and more. 

Regular use of probiotics and prebiotics may improve leaky gut and prepare the body to accept all different kinds of foods. Studies have found improved gut condition increases neurotransmitter production and helps boost brain functions.

2. Focus on Diets

Because of impaired guts, children suffering from ASD often face mineral and vitamin deficiencies. Also, the lack of fiber can worsen gut imbalance and often contributes to leaky gut symptoms. Many children on the spectrum are sensitive to proteins like gluten and casein in their diet.

To overcome these hurdles, parents often put their children on a ketogenic diet. It is a common belief that a keto diet gives children with austim foods that are rich with omega-3 fatty acids. Foods like sardines, tuna, salmon, flaxseed, chia seed, and walnuts are good sources of omega-3 fatty acids. Some also try dark chocolate to help enhance brain functionality. 

3. Antibiotics 

Under a physician's prescription, some try antibiotics like vancomycin but that is usually only for extreme cases. Antibiotics can wipe the gut of both good and bad bacteria leaving negative consequences. As children with autism have more bad bacterias over good ones, trying antibiotics can alleviate some conditions like chronic diarrhea. 

Always consult a doctor for the best therapeutic dose of any medication or herbal remedy. Some people also try antibiotics and probiotics together. In such a case, try fermented products like curd, yogurt, or kefir to help balance gut bacteria.

4. Fecal Transplant

Fecal transplant sounds absolutely bizarre to anyone who is reading it for the first time, but the concept is to transplant fecal material into the GI tract of the patient. This allows a complete shift of microbiome to a recipient without hurting anyone's digestive system. 

5. Microbiota Transfer Therapy

This is a new solution where patients use antibiotics to clear their gut. After clearing their gut, the patient is put on high-dose, standard human gut microbiota for several weeks. This not only improve GI symptoms, but it can also normalize gut microbiomes to that of healthy individuals. 

Try Probiotics over Others

Though we have discussed some possible treatments, most of the options require a physician's help. A diet plan doesn't work well with conditions like diarrhea, and you may also need to consult a nutritionist. These days, there's a lot of focus on probiotics that you can use at home to help your child to improve their gut problems which may, in turn, help improve their autism symptoms.

For most people, probiotics have no major side effects outside of mild gas and bloating. Some of the best benefits of probiotic use include:

1. Probiotics help the body fight cold and flu viruses.

2. Probiotics can boost vitamin B12 in our body, resulting in more energy.

3. Probiotics are helpful in maintaining the ideal body weight.

4. Probiotics can boost the immune system naturally.

5. Probiotics can help eliminate bad breath.

Probiotic Strains and Autism

When it comes to probiotics, people often recommend yogurt, fruits like bananas, mangoes, papayas, and herbs like peppermint and fennel. These foods can help to grow all good bacteria in your gut. The question is which strains of bacteria are good for people with autism? 

Studies have shown that two of the best probiotic strains to help in IBS and autism are bifidobacterium and lactobacillus. Using these with probiotic-rich foods can have synergistic effects to help improve gut functions.

Besides that, lactobacillus reuteri showed promising results in improving social behaviors in kids with autism. A study conducted in Texas found this strain of bacteria to release more oxytocin and improve the social behavior in children with autism. No wonder it can heal gut problems too. Using this form of probiotics also showed a wide array of health benefits including myoskeletal maintenance, improved metabolism, wound healing, and more.

Bacteroid fragilis is also beneficial for kids with autism. A study from the California Institute of Technology found this strain has the unique ability to penetrate the mucus layer and embed itself to repair the intestinal cell lining, which is a big bonus to anyone suffering from leaky guts. 

Things to Avoid with Probiotics

Though probiotics have no major side effects, it's prohibited for post-cardiac surgery patients, patients with bloody stools like hematochezia or melena, patients with pancreatic disorders, and infants. Other than that, anyone with a severely weakened immune system should consult with a doctor before taking probiotics or any other over the counter remedies. 

The Bottom Line

It's been proven that there's a strong correlation between our brains and our guts. If you can fix either of them, the other one will likely react to that positive feedback. When it comes to autism, this correlation is a key part of further study to lessen the effects and work toward a cure. 

You'll likely see significant behavioral changes, improved social interactions, and a big margin of improvement in your child’s learning abiity with gut treatment. In short, treating the gut can result in a better lifestyle for anyone suffering from autism spectrum disorder. 

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More Articles about Sensory Processing Disorder

Recipes for Improved Gut Health

 

5 Extracurricular Activities for a Holistic Education

5 Extracurricular Activities to Give Your Child a Holistic Education

Kids can only learn so much from traditional education, which is why it is vital that they also get involved in a host of extracurricular activities. These recreational pastimes for children aid their development and help them discover their passions. Extra curricular activities also can help kids to make friends and find positive role models. You want your child to become a well-rounded adult with much to contribute to society. You can help give kids a kickstart by sparking a passion for any one or more of these extracurricular activities that help give your child a holistic education.

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1) Music

Studying music has shown to improve test scores and help students do better in school. Music also can provide kids with a new way to express themselves. Additionally, the study of music helps kids to concentrate and can give them a sense of accomplishment as they learn to achieve their goals.

Get Videos on Folk Musicians and FREE Lesson Plans

 

There are many different instruments with which kids can start. One popular option is the drums. If you think this might be a good fit for your child, then you can learn more here.

 

2) Sports

Sports are an excellent outlet for getting exercise and building teamwork skills. Many kids even find themselves meeting some of their best friends through sports.

 

With so many different sports to choose from, your child will find something that works for them. If your kid has a hard time staying active, then participating in sports may provide the perfect fun way to get regular physical activity.

3) Art

Art is a fantastic way for children to express themselves and let their creative sides run wild. Many kids get a great sense of accomplishment when they create a beautiful piece of art.

 

There are many ways to get your child involved with art. While you can have your child take lessons, you could also involve them in crafts at home. The process of making things is essential to childhood development, no matter how you go about it.

4) Drama

Participating in performing arts can help kids to boost confidence. Drama also increases empathy because it requires your child to walk around in someone else’s shoes. Learning to play a character can help kids to see things from a different perspective and be more understanding.

Find our Plays & Skits at TeachersPayTeachers

 

Drama can help kids build trust and learn to rely on each other. When they are on stage, they need to trust that their scene partner will always have their back if they forget a line or something goes wrong. Even if your child never becomes a star, the performing arts can significantly change their life.

5) Writing

Writing is a pastime that has many professional advantages. One of the most sought-after skills in the professional world is strong writing. Starting young can help your child to succeed in their career.

Find Homeschool Lessons

 

Writing can help children to process their thoughts and express themselves. It also may assist kids in their overall communication skills. Encourage your child to write short stories, poems, or to keep a journal.

The Bottom Line

Childhood is the perfect time for people to explore a plethora of different activities to find the things that they enjoy. Hopefully, these suggestions will give you some ideas about what your children might like to do in their free time. It's great to open their minds to all sorts of possibilities. Something may spark a career choice.

However, it is essential not to force your child to do anything that does not interest them. While encouragement is helpful, pressure can be counterproductive and may cause resentment. You need to strike a careful balance. Remember that your kids are just kids, and they may not become the next Olympic athlete or musical prodigy, and that is okay, just let them enjoy their extra curricular activities. 

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