Getting Creative with Bum Genius Artist Series- How do you get crafty?

So, Bum Genius is giving away a full set of their new diapers, from the artist series. They challenged parents to answer this question: How do you encourage a creative, artistic spirit in your baby, toddler or young child?

Well, first of all you have to understand that A) I homeschooled my kids for about ten years, and I am about to start with my preschooler, so crafting is just part of life and B) I LOVE creative things. I am a freelance writer, I have published poetry, and I sew and write in my spare time. And scrapbook.

All of these things lead to our life naturally including art, writing, and other creative endeavors. We have always used art to learn, such as the time when we made paper mache globes to learn the continents or all the times we made collages to learn letter sounds.

I could seriously write for hours about how important art and creativity is to kids. It was always one of my main goals to have children with creative spirits. When we bought toys when my older children were small, I always went for crayons, paper, finger paints, and bottles of glitter FIRST. We never had children who wanted the newest toy, but would instead ask for yarn to make a teddy bear or a composition book and pencils to write a story or draw a picture.

Crafting is fun, but it is also a great way to help kids develop. Different activities help develop their hand and eye coordination, and also helps them learn complex materials much sooner. I love crafting, too, so I know that it helps that they were, and are, constantly surrounded by art and crafting.

My kids still love drawing, reading and writing stories. They aren't as interested in making crafts as they were a few years ago, but they do sew and do other projects on a weekly basis. School also takes up a lot of their time, so they don't make as many things as they once did.

I still make sure they have all the things that they need to use their imagination and creativity, however. Having a great imagination is a tool that can easily allow a child to use items around the house to make something new, even if you don't stock up on crafting items like I tend to do.

You can check out the new artists series from Bum Genius here: www.cottonbabies.com and www.bumgenius.com