Do your little ones struggle with handwriting? Is it hard for them to hold their pencil, to form their letters? We all know that arts and crafts are a great way to develop the small muscles of the hand for handwriting. Drawing, cutting, working with pastels, painting, and even finger painting in pudding can really help. But have you ever thought of having your little ones work with clay?
Making things with clay (or play dough) is a great way to strengthen the wrist and the small muscles of the hand. And Oak Meadow, one of our favorite educational publishers, has just the thing for that. It’s called Clay Fun, and it is full of creative, easy to do projects – to make out of clay or even play dough.
~ Don’t miss the fun giveaway from Oak Meadow at the end! ~
Clay Fun includes the following:
1. Suggested Basic Tools List
2. A brief history of Clay
3. Kneading Clay instructions
4. Scratch and Glue instructions
5. 21 easy to do, fun clay projects
There is a brief definition of clay, with a short history of clay as well, in the introduction to Clay Fun. It is written to the student, in a sweet, gentle tone, just for them, including:
“Clay is found in the skin of the earth. All over the world there are pockets of clay. The finest particles of earth make up these pockets. Mountains are ground into rocks, rocks are ground into sand, and sand is ground into clay. Clay is washed down rivers and formed clay pockets..etc.”
This makes Clay Fun into a simple unit study for your family!
I love how each project comes with easy to follow, step by step instructions. Here’s one for making Animals:
Here’s the suggested tools list, all stuff that you can find around your home:
1. A thick dowel or rolling pin
2. A large needle
3. A paintbrush
4. Newspaper for drying
Here’s another Clay project, making a Cornucopia, and it comes with easy to follow instructions, too:
Wouldn’t your children be proud to show their Clay Cornucopia off, to holiday visitors?
Each of these Clay Fun projects can be enjoyed by kids of all ages. It could become a family project! Your whole homeschool could take a Clay Fun break, in the afternoons!
Each of the 21 projects can just be air dried, for keeping.
If you are looking for a fun way to strengthen the small muscles of the hand and a fun art program for the whole family to do, my family recommends Clay Fun by Oak Meadow. For more information, or how to order this book, just go to Oak Meadow. Oak Meadow also produces lovely, gentle, child-oriented, hands-on curriculum for all ages (preschool to high school) For more information, go to www.oakmeadow.com.
Now for the Giveaway!
Oak Meadow is giving away three (3) Clay Fun Art to three Curriculum Choice readers! Simply follow the instructions in the rafflecopter widget below…
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Betsy blogs at BJ’s Homeschool about high school and college and all the fun of homeschooling the early years too. As a veteran homeschooler and the mom of a college student and homeschool grad, Betsy also offers free help to homeschool families, She is the author of Homeschooling High School with College in Mind.
Betsy is a long time eclectic homeschooler who blogs about resources and offers encouragement for moms of kids/teen from preK-12. She and her hubby homeschooled their daughter through high school, and helped her get accepted to each of the colleges on her list. Their daughter is now a college grad working in her chosen field of Communications. Betsy blogs about their journey at BJ's Homeschool about the early years, high school and college too. A former O. T, she also writes about special needs, and handwriting helps. Betsy is the author of "Homeschooling High School with College in Mind, 2nd edition" and also is a homeschool coach. Send her your question on homeschooling. (Free)
My girls and I love to draw and just do any type of art with one another. Great giveaway!
Thanks for sharing, Melissa L! My daughter liked to draw, too.
My boys love painting.
Thanks for stopping by, Sharon!
Having instructions for clay projects is always great. It can take the guessing out of creating for kids that just need a little direction. Helpful review Betsy!
Thanks for your comment, Stephanie @ Harrington Harmonies. I think you’ll like the instructions that come with Clay Fun.
We enjoy making cards through cutting, layering and gluing- sort of in a scrapbooking style.
Thanks for sharing your creative ideas, Anna L.!
We’ve been enjoying pastels a lot lately.
Aren’t pastels wonderful, Melissa, and thanks for your comment!
Pottery, painting, crafts from nature.
Julia, you have a nice variety of art and crafts at your homeschool. Thanks for sharing!
My favorite crafts this year have been doing mosaic terra cotta pots using painted eggshells while studying the Byzantine empire with my boys and teaching them how to crochet and knit (all in the name of building better fine motor skills!). I love arts and crafts, but confess that I lack inspiration most of the time!
Thanks for sharing your great ideas re mosaics, Bekki@a better way to homeschool!
Our favorite craft is painting with watercolors.
Thanks for sharing, Lynn!
All my kids love painting!
We love painting, too, Tanya, especially watercolors.
We love making paintings together!
Thanks for sharing how your family loves painting, Meg! Nothing like taking an art break in the afternoons!
My husband is artistic and he and our 5yo son will draw and paint together for hours. But I was never very artistic and am only giving it a second go now that I have a child to do it with 🙂 He and I will mostly work with clay, or constructing dolls and puppets from random trash (old clothing/toilet paper tubes/etc.). I like to think he gets two entries into creating things through our different sensibilities. Thank you for the review! We will have to add this to our homeschool 🙂
What creative art ideas that you shared, Shannon! I love the idea of creating dolls from random trash. What a great idea!
Thank you for this opportunity! We love painting, sketching, and anything with beads and yarn.
Painting, beads, and yarn….sounds wonderful! Thanks for stopping by, Meredith!
I have a daughter who has been really into making things with clay and I think she would really love this – it would be so much better to have something that’s more like curriculum rather than the grown-up sculpting books we’ve found!
How nice that your daughter loves clay! Thanks for stopping by, GG. My daughter loved working with clay as well, but we really needed simple directions, and didn’t like the sculpting books either. Clay Fun has a nice approach that I think that your daughter would like.
I really enjoy doing nature inspired crafts with my children.
Thanks for sharing what you enjoy doing for art and crafts, Channon!
we are finishing up some nature stories focusing on deer and my daughter wants to make a clay deer! oh dear. i have no idea how to approach it. been thinking about it and perusing Pinterest for ideas! great time to win this book!!!!
This book has projects for making animals, so it should help with your daughter’s deer project. Thanks for sharing, kate!
Lately we have been really enjoying painting peg people together!
I love your project, Lorien! Painting peg people sounds like such fun!
Our family loves to create nature inspired art using many different art techniques and elements. Clay is one of our favorites!
I agree, Dori…nothing like nature inspired art!
Besides using this with my own young children, I’d love to share some ideas with my sister-in-law for my special needs nephew.
Joanne, I hope that Clay Fun provides help to your nephew with special needs…thanks for commenting!
we are a crafty family,we love to try everything!
Thanks for stopping by, sara! We are a family who loves to do crafts, too!
My daughter loves the Oak Meadow Curriculum, it has helped me build her self confidence and knowledge by doing seemingly simple school projects. We haven’t tried working with clay yet but I think she would have a blast, thanks for the give away.
Thanks for sharing, Elaina K, and it’s so nice to meet another Oak Meadow family! We also found their project-oriented approach to be a great for my daughter. We especially liked their science and nature activities.
We like painting, drawing and all sorts of fiber crafts. And we love Oak Meadows 🙂 Thanks for the giveaway!
Fiber crafts sounds like a lot of fun! Have you ever tried doing simple loom weaving? Thanks for sharing, Tanya!
My kids (5 and 3) love all arts and crafts. It is there go to thing to do at home. We plan on homeschooling starting next fall for 1st grade, and this would be an excellent learning tool to have in our curriculum!
That is so nice that your little ones enjoy arts and crafts! I like how they are incoorporated into so much of the Oak Meadow curriculum, even in the later years. It is exciting to hear of your plans to start Oak Meadow first grade next year. Thanks for stopping by, Ami!
Currently our favorite crafts are sewing and paper crafts. My son has become a more reluctant crafter, but if he incorporates math or even Star Wars into whichever project we’re doing or methods/materials we’re exploring he’s much more enthusiastic. I’m very intrigued by the Clay Fun book because we have little experience with clay and based on your comments about muscle development it would be wonderful while we’re learning knitting!
Susie, I like how you incorporate Starts Wars and other things, to make crafts more meaningful for your son. Working with clay helped to strengthen my daughter’s hand muscles, and made it easier for her to learn handwriting. How cool that you related that to knitting, and thanks for sharing your creative ideas!
My son and I love doing any sort of art or craft together. But, he really loves clay, painting, and using perler beads right now.