Kids Craft Ideas for Camp Counselors

Are you a camp counselor, scout leader or Sunday School teacher looking for great craft ideas for children's fun and enrichment? Maybe you feel like you are just not the creative type, and you struggle to come up with craft projects.

It 's true that some people just have a knack for finding or even inventing craft ideas, but your own creativity can be improved. There are ways to make it easier to find a craft idea for children's needs.

First, forget about being perfect. Regardless of the children's program you are helping put together, there are tons of suitable craft ideas out there for both girls and boys. If you keep in mind the age and skill levels of the kids involved, you really don't need to worry about picking the wrong one. Kids often make their own fun in surprising ways that you've never even thought of.

Next, consider your budget. When choosing a craft idea for children's programs, you need to be aware that some of them are expensive. Prepackaged kits to make a fun foam picture frame or a craft stick cross are affordable for a few kids, but if you are needing to do a craft with a lot of kids, these kits will usually cost too much.

If you're wandering around Michael's or AC Moore's looking at craft kits, often you can find the same materials used in the kits sold in bulk right there in the shop. And don't forget to check the Sunday paper for the discount coupons. Most of the craft stores accept the coupons for any craft store, so if you have a Joann's or AC Moore coupon, you can use it at Michael's, or vice versa.

Get to know your craft store and spend some time exploring the lay-out and seeing what is kept where. By buying the materials in bulk, you may have to do some preparation, like cutting out shapes ahead of time, or at least making cardboard patterns for the kids to use in cutting out their own, but the savings on your budget is well worth the time spent. You should also consider getting some of the older kids involved in preparing supplies for the younger ones. It's a fun way of giving them some responsibility.

In fact, during most of the time I spent as a Girl Guide leader, the girls themselves usually came up with the best, most fun and most creative ideas. Don't be afraid to get the kids involved in the decision making process when it comes to brainstorming craft ideas, both for themselves and for some of the younger kids. I think they would get a kick out of it. They'll often have surprisingly creative ways of thinking about how to use materials, and you may even find it is more economical to work with the kids in your program on ways to think outside the box. For instance, you could have a craft day where everyone has to bring in materials from home to recycle into craft supplies. Just make sure they get permission first before pulling apart mom's antique sweater for new yarn ;)

Here's another thing to keep in mind. It really is true that boys and girls tend to like different sorts of crafts, especially if they are adolescents. Stick with lace-up leather billfolds, wood projects, dinosaur art, and similar projects if you're not sure whether the craft might be dismissed by the boys as being "for girls only!" Girls generally like beads, fun colors like pink and purple and glitter -- lots and lots of glitter.

For a craft idea for a children's camp with both boys and girls participating, you'll often find that girls are much more flexible when it comes to crafts and the sorts of things they like to play with and are more willing to do "boys things" than boys are willing to do "girls things", but try and keep material on hand to keep both the boys and girls happy. What you can do to introduce a little variety is to keep the kids working together as a group and the supplies all out on the middle of the table instead of splitting the kids off into separate gender groups. Who knows, you just might find the boys grabbing a glitter stick once they see how much fun the girls are having. Of course, many crafts are perfectly suitable for both girls and boys -- painting, drawing, working with clay and play-dough, etc.

An aspect of creativity that many people who feel they are not creative don't realize is that ideas spring from other ideas. That is, if you look over a book or website of craft ideas, maybe none of them will appeal to you, but if you let them, they will spark an idea for a similar project. Try keeping a small notebook to write ideas in as they come to you and to stuff articles into from magazines. Most of the home magazines like Martha Stewarts, Home and Garden, Redbook, etc. have various craft ideas in them that are easy to pull together cheaply.

Also, remember that you can always change things to suit your needs. Use what you can and change what you must in the craft directions. For instance, the craft may have a slogan to be written across the front. If you need to change the slogan to fit your own needs, it's perfectly OK. For instance, the pictured project might say "Girls rock!" You can change that to "He is the Rock!" if that meets your Sunday School project needs better.

A final suggestion is to realize that you don't have to change the instructions or create something new to have a good craft idea for kid use. Feel free to follow the instructions to the letter if that works better for you. The kids will have a great time either way. Just pick a craft idea, for childhood creativity beats adult creativity everytime! The kids will make it creative, even if you have doubts about your own ability in this area.

Actually, this is my final suggestion: Just relax and have fun!

Regardless of what crafts you are going to be working on at camp or at a scouting meeting, there are essential supplies that you'll need to have on hand for any craft idea you come up with. So here's a brief list of some things you should have in your crafting tool kit. You'll think of more essentials as you start brainstorming ideas. These are just the ones I came up with from the top of my head. Just keep them all in a shoebox and you'll have it on hand whenever you need it.

• • crayons
  • color markers (semi-permanet and permanent)
  • color pencils (and some regular pencils too!)
  • glue sticks
  • elmer's glue
  • children's safety scissors
  • rulers
  • construction paper
  • colored & plain cardstock
  • stencils
  • stickers
  • rubber stamps and stamp pads
  • erasers