It’s time for the joy of creation

Summer holidays are a source of joy for kids but a cause of worry for parents. Rashmi Closepet suggests a few creative DIY projects that can help parents keep their kids creatively engaged...

Summer is here and so is the heat. School is over, which means your kids have the time to get mischievous and spend a lot more time on gadgets! Instead of letting them get glued to the TV or computer games, keep them creatively engaged for hours with DIY projects.

DIY or Do-It-Yourself is the act of making something or decorating or repairing your house yourself than employing or paying a professional. DIY is the new cool that encourages kids to indulge in some creative activities. From recycling waste materials lying around the house to building a birdhouse in the garden, one can explore endless DIY opportunities this summer.

Here is a list of curated artsy-craftsy DIYs that are fun, easy, colourful and engaging:

Planning & journalling

A wreath made of feathers

What better way to make the best use of summer holidays than to plan? A summer planner is the perfect means to chart out daily and weekly activities — A Lazy Monday, Trip Tuesday, What’s Cooking Wednesday, Crafty Thursday, Fun Friday, Sleeping Saturday or a Shopping Sunday. Pull out some cardboard (cut it into 13 in x 19 in for a decent size), coloured paper, sketch pens, crayons or colour pencils, stickers, glitter, coloured string, glue and get started. And who says journalling is only for adults? Children can record their summer camp experiences, stick photographs from trips, or write about anything new they learnt.

Experience life on a farm

Visit Old Macdonald’s farm and spend some time with the moo-moo’s and the oink oink’s. Come back and create your own farm with cuter animals. You will need wine bottle corks, thermacol balls, paints, ribbons, felt sheets, googly eyes and seashells. After the animals are ready, use miniature plants, houses and ponds to add finer details. Children can use it as a keepsake project or display it in schools/exhibitions after the summer holidays.

Wall hanging for kid’s bedroom

Let the kids add a dash of colour to their bedroom. An aquarium wall hanging project is colourful and easy to make. Paint blue background on cardboard and add natural sand, pebbles and stones to make the seabed. Make fishes with bottle caps and their fins with paper. Add tissue paper seaweeds and water plants. Attach a jute string to the cardboard and the wall hanging is ready to be adorned! Another idea is to make a feathery floral wreath. Wreaths are a symbol of luck and charm and can be gifted to loved ones, too. Glue a bunch of feathers to a paper rope wreath and embellish it with flowers and it’s ready.

Capture memories on a paper and not on a phone

Does it not sound exciting to look at old photographs and relive all your memorable moments? This summer, capture precious memories and preserve them forever. Encourage your children to make a scrapbook album. Find some printed pattern papers, photographs, jute laces, markers, stickers, glitters and anything fun to start off with!

Back to school

It’s never too early to start preparing for the new session! As much as parents look forward to schools reopening, children look forward to new experiences. Let children DIY their old pencil cases and give it a completely new look. Or get them to make a pen stand for their pens and pencils. Convert old kitchen tins or tissue paper rolls into a creative tabletop organiser. They can keep it in the study or simply flaunt their DIY creation.

With these creative ideas, parents can spend their summer less worried about how to kill their kid’s summer boredom. Wishing you all loads of creative happiness, love, laughter, and happy holidays 2019!

(The author is managing director, Itsy Bitsy)