Arts and crafts are fun
activities for kids. Be it coloring with crayons or making miniature statues from clay, folding
paper to create fine origami or designing a handmade birthday card, there are several arts and
crafts activities, which can enhance the interest of the children and exploit their artistic
potential.
By introducing arts and crafts
to the kids and involving them in such activities in school, you will invest in building their
cognitive, physical, and social development.
Physical Benefits:
Development of fine motor
skills
Since most arts and crafts
activities consist of moving fingers and hands, they help in developing fine motor skills. Simple
actions like holding a paintbrush and coloring with pencils help strengthen muscles and improve
their control.
Enhances dexterity:
Arts and crafts activities can
enhance the children’s dexterity and agility. With the enhancement of fine motor skills and much
practice, a child’s manual dexterity, artistic skills, and speed will also increase.
Improvement of hand-eye
coordination
Engaging in activities related
to arts and crafts from a very young age leads to a tremendous improvement in hand-eye coordination.
This will help a child during later primary school years when she or he is spacing out words or
forming letters.
Social Benefits:
Learn to appreciate art and
culture
Through arts and craft,
children learn to value and appreciate artifacts and images across cultures and times. Experience in
design, art, and crafts enable them to reflect critically on their own work and those by others.
They learn to act and think like designers and artists, working intelligently and creatively. They
also learn about the preservation of heritage through art. A lot of the information we have now
about people that lived millions of years ago came solely from art.
Enhances self-expression:
By engaging in creative
pursuits of music and arts and crafts, children get the opportunity of expressing themselves in a
positive, tangible and meaningful way. They also learn to create artwork on their own.
Helps in socializing:
Participating, with other
students in art class, gives children a chance to interact with others while sharing common
interests. The process of arts and crafts also strengthens parent-child bonding.
Boosts confidence:
Arts and craft activities help
instill a sense of achievement and pride in children, boosting their self-confidence.
Cognitive Benefits:
Enhances creativity
The opportunity to create
whatever a child desires helps foster creativity.
Sharpens skills of decision
making
A child will learn to make
correct and effective decisions by facing and solving artistic challenges. This helps to develop a
problem-solving attitude, which in turn, will help them in the future.
Enhances memory and visual
learning
A child learns about new
colors and shapes through arts and crafts as well as gains familiarity with various figures and
patterns. Activities like learning guitar, jewelry making, etc. need visualization and memorization
of complex designs in mind.
Arts and crafts not only help in the above
traits but also in boosting academic performance.