Content Versus Skill Level

Over the past several weeks, I've been puzzled by the craft selections for some of our Saturday morning "Kids Club" projects.

At its best, Kids Club is a lot of fun. Pay a couple of bucks, let your kid get creative for a half-hour, possibly meet new friends, and at the end of it they'll have a craft they can show-and-tell, give as a gift, or keep for themselves. They may have even learned a new skill in the process.

At its worst, any one-size-fits-all children's craft program can be an exercise in frustration.

As any parent or teacher will tell you, the key to a successful kids craft is providing interesting content at an appropriate skill level. That's not always as straightforward as it seems — especially for "drop-in" teachers and leaders who are not acquainted with your individual child's development level.
(This is why, when suggesting appropriate craft kits and supplies, I always tell parents, "The ages listed are guidelines: you know your own child's development level and attention span best." It's also why planning a craft that spans a large range of ages and development levels (our Kids Club is aimed at ages 3-12) is a considerable challenge.)

The challenge I've seen over the early part of October has been a mismatch between content and skill level. We've been pushing licensing relationships with Sprout and Disney Junior, whose progamming is aimed at the preschool set. The crafts we've featured included cutting out a number of very small pieces of felt, foam, and cardboard, and sticking them together in a very specific order — a skillset better suited towards pre-teens or older. As expected, the content drew only preschoolers and kindergarteners. The parents ended up doing most of the drawing and cutting, while the kids quickly got bored (even with Vampirina scenes to color in). The craft took the parents more than a half-hour to complete.

Thankfully, our child-friendly events aren't limited to Kids Club. Most recently, we had a couple of slime events, a pumpkin-decorating event, and a Hallowe'en T-shirt painting event. While these were meant for all ages, it was mostly kids participating with parents looking on and helping when needed. Corporate templates given as jump-off points were ignored beyond my introduction of them, and creativity was completely unleashed. Last month's two-hour Emoji Cupcake Decorating class, aimed at adults, was a largely parent-child bonding event, with everyone riffing after the original three emojis (heart eyes, poop, and crazy) were completed. Our annual Gingerbread House event is similar. The keys to success are a match of content (kid friendly) with skill level, and parental involvement.