Crafts for Lazy Parents: Pipe Cleaner Sculptures

Pipe cleaners are awesome. Though not necessarily for cleaning actual pipes. I mean, I tried to use one once to clean out the straw part of an old sippy cup that had been under the couch for a few days weeks months and it was not very helpful.

But for crafts they are perfect. I mean, they don't spill, or stick or stain. If they do wind up on the floor (in my house it's more a question of when), they don't hurt to step on. And they're cheap.

I like to tell the kids to make a sculpture with them, mostly because it sounds so much better than, "Entertain yourselves with these so I can stop feeling guilty about all the screen time you have."

The twist is very popular.

But you can't rule out making actual things, like flowers.

When the kids were younger, they would put beads on them and turn them into bracelets. The stiffness of the pipe cleaner made stringing tinier beads easier, I guess. I had forgotten all about the bead thing (beads have been banished until I'm sure I won't be the one who has to dig them all out of the carpet) until Hugmonkey brought this home from school:

According to Hugmonkey, these kept them busy for several art classes this year. So I'm thinking that's at least one rainy summer afternoon activity. I love the way they've got the beads and the overlapping pipe cleaners going on, it's so filled with fine motor goodness.

Crafts for Lazy Parents: Wood "Crafts"

Generally, I'm not a huge fan of craft kits. I think kids are more creative when left to their own devices, with a caddy full of glue, paper, markers and scissors. However, my kids think craft kits are cool. I don't know why, but I blame all the times Hot Guy has taken them to the craft store. 

It is also his fault they find fart jokes so amusing. 

Anyway, when he first started bring the wood craft kits home, I was annoyed. More mess! More clean up! Putting little tiny pieces together! It was like a nightmare. 

But he did most of it with the kids - well, putting the tiny pieces together and supervising the painting, anyway. Now that Ironflower and Lovebug are into elementary school, they don't even need help anymore. The best part is, Hot Guy found the kits in the back of Michael's for like a dollar. Now it's a ritual for each kid to get a kit when he takes them to Michael's. 

ex

A kit car. I recommend skipping the paint included with the kit and just using your own. 

But somehow, when I took them to Michael's, they didn't like all the dollar put together and paint kits. They wanted the scary, complicated kits that expect people to use hot glue guns talent. I broke out into hives, until I distracted them with the the wooden kits that came with their own markers.

Don't ask me why coloring wood with markers is more exciting than using coloring books, but it is. 

It keeps them busy longer, too. 

Now, I don't have pictures of them, unfortunately, but you don't have to buy a kit to entertain your kiddos this way. If your garage is filled with wood scraps, like my father-in-law's workshop is, your kiddos can use them to create their own wooden crafts. You can have them use wood glue to glue pieces together (if they're over 7 or so), or just let them paint some scraps. The big kids did something like that years ago when they visited their grandparents, if I recall correctly. 

Crafts for Lazy Parents: Mural Time

I once saw a craft - for children, mind you - that involved painter's tape, chalk, stencils and living room walls. I think I started to break out into hives just looking at it. But it did get me thinking about how much my kids love drawing on vertical surfaces. In addition to all the wall "art", some of which is still on display from their toddler years, they also love to use their chalk on our back fence. And our brick wall.

So I taped poster sized paper to the wall and handed over the crayons.

I don't know why, but this occupied them for an hour. Every time I change the paper (which isn't as often as I should), they get excited about drawing on the wall all over again. Soon I'm going to get butcher paper and see if they'll actually work together on something, but the individual sheets have been great for giving each kid his or her own space.

Sure, the drawings aren't as pretty as the ones I saw in the fancy mural craft. But I didn't have to spend five hours on them, either. It probably took less than 10 minutes to tape the papers to the wall. So that's 10 minutes for an hour of kid entertainment. . .my favorite kind of craft.