Summer has only just started, but most of us have already been home with our kids for three months. How are we going to survive another three?
Michaels — the craft store — feels our pain and has a plan to give the kids a fun online craft camp — for free! — so their parents can stare into space, clear the Cheerios off the floor, or go to at least one Zoom meeting without a half-naked child running in and taking it off the rails.
Every. Single. Day. Of. The. Week! There is a class from 3 to 4 p.m. Central time until Aug 1. By the end of summer, the kids will be experts at jewelry making, painting, clay modeling, and so much more.
The calendar is right here.
Be sure to stock up on supplies so you can enjoy your moment of Zen.
These acrylic paints are necessary.
Inexpensive, washable, and an ingredient in many of the camp classes your child will take, these acrylic paints ($2.99 for a set of four) are must-have in every craft kit. You might find yourself using them too to spice up the decor or get creative.
Stock up on colors, because you can save another 20% by using the code 20MADEBYYOU at checkout.
To make a friendship bracelet
If you plan to make a friendship bracelet, you will need scissors, glue, and some of this colored twine ($4.19).
Obviously, every child needs to know how to make these! There's probably a career as an Etsy store bracelet mogul in their future!
A watercolor salt painting?
I wonder if anyone would know I was not a child if I decided to take the watercolor salt painting class. Why do kids get to have all the fun?
If anyone is taking that class, they will need a canvas to paint on. And once you have a few canvases around, what's to stop you from painting the fruit bowl or your mother or even the sleeping cat? This is how artists are born.
Also? They are on sale. An 8×10-inch canvas is $8.49. But you can save 20% by using the code 20MADEBYYOU at checkout.
Kid-made plant pots? Yes, please!
It's not child labor if you line up a bunch of clay pots, crafting supplies, and some instructions and hope that your homebound child will turn out a dozen — or more! — adorable pots for your windowsill herb garden. It's crafts! It's educational!
You are going to need some of these foam stick-on flowers ($2.99). This is gonna be so cute!
Warning: A glue gun leads to amazing projects.
Once you put a glue gun in a child's hand, you will start to see the visions — imagined in everything from Easter eggs to T-shirts — she holds in her head.
This is the low-temp glue gun ($2.99) your child will need for the Woven Critters class.
It might also be the beginning of a lot of small items being glued to other larger things. So set some limits. No gluing things to the car! No gluing to the cat! No gluing to the fridge — or your baby sister! (Unless you like the sound of any of that.)
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