• Crafting together is a great way to spend time with children.Kids Room image by Vanessa van Rensburg from Fotolia.com
  
  Crafting is a great way to have fun with kids and toddlers; it's creative, it's (often) messy, and you may end up with wonderful artwork to display---even if only the two of you think it's beautiful. Crafting with young children should be process-oriented, rather than results-oriented; it's all about textures, colors and developing manual dexterity at this age. Still, a young child can create things that are not only recognizable, they're suitable for gift-giving---if he can bear to give them up.
  
  

Toddlers

• When crafting with toddlers you will need to do most of the prep work such as cutting out shapes and assembling supplies. If you cut the top off a gallon milk jug (leaving the handle section intact) and give your toddler some permanent markers, she can decorate the jug however she likes. Such a jug is very useful; she can use it to scoop up toys off the floor, play with it in the bathtub or wading pool, and place it on a floor by a chair. She should stand on the chair (with you close by) and try dropping clothespins over the back of it into her all-purpose decorated jug.
  
  

Preschoolers

• Preschoolers are able to do a lot of things with your direct supervision that they wouldn't be able to do otherwise, so set up the ironing board and put the iron on low heat while your child uses a cheese grater to make a few crayon shavings. Have him tear off a couple of pieces of waxed paper---they should be approximately the same size, but no need to be too particular about it---and put one of them on the ironing board, then sprinkle it with the shavings. The crayons shouldn't be piled too deeply on the paper, and they should stop within ½-inch or so of the edge. Put the other piece of waxed paper over it, cover it with some paper towels and iron the whole assembly until the crayon shavings melt and the waxed paper sticks together. Even up the edges with scissors, punch a hole through two corners for a yarn hanger, and hang this "stained glass" masterpiece for everyone to admire.
  
  

School-Aged Kids

• If there's anything kids of this age love more than making things with their hands, it's making things that they can share with their friends, and these squishy bean bag-ball hybrids are just the ticket. Give them three 11-inch balloons for each ball and ¾-cup dried lentils for each ball they want to make. Blow up the balloons---but do not tie them off--about halfway to stretch them out. Then let the air out, put a funnel in one balloon's neck and pour in the lentils (this may take some pushing with a chopstick). Next, cut off the rolled edge of the first balloon's neck and cut the necks entirely off the other two balloons. Tuck the first balloon inside the second balloon neck-end first, gently stretching the opening in the second balloon to make it fit. Repeat with the third balloon; the finished ball will be round and firm but squeezable and have a bright circle on one side if you used different colored balloons. Make several and send the kids outside to juggle.