Forget Messy, Failed Crafts. Try This Instead

My child… is a crafter. A serious crafter. She’s never met a box, paper, pair of scissors, string, marker, or scrap she didn’t love and have great plans for. Sometimes, her craft project turns out exactly as she envisions it. In those instances, I’m met with a wonderfully happy and proud child, a self-proclaimed genius scientist. But when it doesn’t, I’m treated to a sad and discouraged little girl, a self-proclaimed “I can never do anything right” mess up. (Let me interject here with the information that my child, just like me, is Type-A. She wants all things perfect and is incredibly distraught when they are not. We’re working on this!)

I then have to launch into clean up mode, literally and figuratively. I assure her that we have to keep trying until we succeed; that we can troubleshoot our projects by identifying what went wrong and making improvements the next time; that the only failure is not trying; that she is smart and capable and I’m very proud. After a bit of coaxing, she feels better. Then, I have to harass her to clean up every bit of cardboard, foam board, yarn, tape, glue, marker, glitter, and scrap off of the floor/desk/counter/wall. It can all be a bit much.

In fact, when she goes to make a craft, I wince a little, anticipating great joy or great sorrow. Then, I was introduced to KiwiCo crates. I saw Reese Witherspoon post on Instagram that she and her son were doing a craft project together, courtesy of KiwiCo. I immediately looked them up, saw they had age-appropriate projects and that the focus was STEM and I signed up immediately. I gifted their monthly subscription to my daughter for Christmas. And last week, we did our first craft.

The craft was an arcade claw and a few prizes. Everything she needed to complete the craft came in a sturdy, cardboard box (which she proudly kept in her craft cart until it was time to do the craft). It had both print and video (score!) instructions. It walked her through each step easily and thoroughly. And it only took about a half-hour. She loved it because it was (a) successful, (b) productive - she has an arcade claw to keep, (c) easy, and (d) relatively independent. I loved it because it was quick and CLEAN! (To see it in action, check out the video on my Instagram page.)

By the way, I’m not being paid for this review. I just love it this much! So if you have a crafting child, you’ll love these KiwiCo boxes.

Have you heard of them? Have you done one of their crafts? Tell me about your experience in the comments!