subject: Specialty Paper Craft Ideas For Summer [print this page] Now that summer is in full swing, you may be looking for something to do with your kids. That could be your biological children, children you babysit or children you work with at camp --or just about any kids who you may find in your care. Although summer is the season to be outside, you are going to want some indoor activities too. Sometimes the heat can be too brutal and you need something to do when it rains. Specialty paper offers a versatile tool for someone in your situation. It can be the start to hundreds of arts and crafts projects that will provide limitless entertainment. Let's discuss some projects.
One project that has been a favorite of educators, parents and kids alike is making picture books. By simply punching some holes in heavyweight paper and running string through them, you can create a binding. From there you can either paint or draw on the book, or you can use other custom stock sheets to create a collage. Heavy weight paper will serve as a sturdy base so you can really do whatever you want with it. This project is great because it provides an outlet for creativity and it's a good introduction to the elements of storytelling. For a fun spin on this project, create a journal and spend the summer filling it in with pictures and entries. Another fun and popular project that has been summer camp mainstay for years is writing letters to your future self. Just grab a colored envelope and have your little ones reflect on what they hope to learn and do in the coming year. After the letter is composed, seal it in a colored envelope and open it a year later. Kids adore seeing how much they have grown and learned over a year. This is another project that works as a creative venture and as an educational exercise. Projects that demand introspection are great for getting kids calm and relaxed.
To honor the summer season you can create flowers out of colored paper and pipe cleaners. The pipe cleaners serve as the stem and the paper can be cut and folded to create different flowers. It's a fun project that is wide open to interpretation. You can have your child recreate some of the flowers they have seen over the course of the summer. You can also let their imaginations run wild and ask them to dream up an altogether new flower.
