Creativity Meets Connection

Fun Family DIY Projects

Juggling job demands, schoolwork, practices, and various activities can make it difficult to find quality family time. With phones, video games and tablets also competing for attention, meaningful connections can fall by the wayside. Fortunately, there's a treasure trove of fun, creative resources available online to spark imagination and foster togetherness when parents and kids undertake hands-on projects together.

Depending on your talents, interests, resources, and time, DIY crafts can be as simple as painting rocks or as ambitious as building a treehouse. Either way, these activities promote family bonding, teamwork and communication, while helping children develop fine motor skills and confidence.

A quick search can lead to countless ideas, complete with step-by-step instructions and video tutorials. Remember — always supervise children when using tools, and choose age-appropriate activities. Here are some ideas to get you started.

• Use kitchen staples to create works of art with potato stamps, or use colorful ingredients like red cabbage, beets, spinach, and turmeric to make natural tie-dyed T-shirts.
• Mix up some playdough and homemade slime with simple ingredients you likely have on hand.
• Make puppet monsters from mismatched mittens, gloves or socks. Glue eyes, noses and mouths to create monsters that are more silly than scary.
• Explore textile crafts, like curtains for children's bedrooms or finger knitting.
• Teach your crew some basic carpentry skills and build a birdhouse or cornhole game.
• Unleash imagination to stage fairy or gnome gardens using craft supplies and garden clippings.