When rain, humidity, or boredom strike this summer while you’re with the grandkids, it’s time to break out the pipe cleaners and googly eyes and enjoy some old-fashioned crafting fun.

Crafting is an activity loved by kids and adults alike, and crafting together, as a family, can help kids make memories they’ll remember for years to come as well as practice fine motor skills. It also allows everyone to embrace their creative sides, indulge their imaginations, and create something beautiful.

Here are eight fun and unexpected ideas for crafting with kids or grandkids this summer, no matter their age, gender, or interests.

Beaded Jewelry
Making beaded jewelry can be a fun way to spend an afternoon and create something kids can keep, wear, and show off. All you need is string, yarn, or jewelry cord along with a large assortment of colorful beads in different sizes and shapes. You can also find beads with letters, so kids can spell out their names or favorite things.

Candy Necklaces
If kids need a little incentive to get into crafting, ditch the beads in favor of cereal, candy, or snacks such as Cheerios, Fruit Loops, gummy rings, Twizzlers, marshmallows, Life Savers, pretzels, popcorn, and other snacks that are easy to get a string through. This makes for an excellent segue into snack time!

Bottle Cap Bugs
Bottle caps may not seem worth saving, but with a little paint and a lot of googly eyes, they can make for some very adorable little ladybugs, bees, butterflies, spiders, and more. Save up old bottle caps and stock up on washable paint, googly eyes, pipe cleaners, and glitter.

You can also use a hot glue gun to adhere small round magnets to the back so the bugs can live on the fridge or another magnetic surface.

Toilet Paper Roll Crafts
Save those empty toilet-paper rolls to make an endless array of objects! Pair the rolls with construction paper, googly eyes, paint or markers, and other supplies and challenge kids to dream up a cylindrical version of a rocket ship, aliens, friends or family members, movie characters, or their favorite animals.

Another favorite is making TP-roll binoculars—not only are they fun to construct and decorate, but kids will hang on to these to play adventure games in the basement or the yard later on. 

Masks
Break out the construction paper and markers for this one! Paper plates are also highly useful for making masks. Kids can design a paper mask to look like their favorite animal or pet, a monster or Halloween character, superheroes, cartoon characters, or dinosaurs. 

Painted Flower Pots
All this craft requires is a few clay gardening pots, some colorful paints, and brushes in a few sizes.

Have kids work outside and paint their pots however they’d like. They can paint the whole thing in rainbow colors, paint images of flowers or outdoor imagery like suns and clouds, patterns, add handprints or thumbprints, or dream up something entirely original.  

Paper Crowns
Fit for king, queen, prince, or princess, these paper crowns are easy to cut out and can be decorated with just about anything—buttons, pipe cleaners, pom poms, fake jewels and rubies, glitter, confetti, paint, and more. You also get some stick-on letters so kids can spell out their names.

Painted Stones
Another craft that lets kids’ imaginations run wild is painted stones. They are a great way to brighten up the day. 

Have kids collect large, smooth stones from around the yard or an outdoor space, and then paint them to look like cartoon or movie characters, family members, pets, favorite foods, candies, monsters, animals, or scenes like houses or beaches. Or, just let then go wild with color blocking, patterns, and shapes. They can also paint on short inspirational sayings, such as “Be Yourself” or “Be Kind” to carry with them.

At Regency Senior Communities, we’re always finding ways to help our residents stay active as well as connected to relatives and friends. Although most in-person activities are on hold due to social-distancing measures, we encourage our residents to enjoy activities like crafting, reading, playing games, and practicing trivia whenever they can. Contact us to schedule a virtual tour and learn about all our amenities and offerings.