How to schedule creative activities for children

Life is busy, isn’t it? There’s the house to manage, the family to feed, the dog to walk, the children to entertain and you have to squeeze in work too.

One of the first things to fall by the wayside can be creative activities with your child, either because they are too messy, or they take too long to set-up. We’ve come up with some ideas for you to try, to help you build art and craft activities into your weekly routine.

Keep the chain going

This idea is really simple:

1. Print out a calendar (a year to a page view). Stick the calendar on a prominent wall. This is a good source for printable calendars is one-page-per-year calendar
2. You’ll then need a red marker to cross off every art and craft session you plan.

The idea is to keep the chain of red crosses, unbroken. If your art and craft time each week is going to be on a Saturday morning after breakfast, keep crossing out that day, after the activity each week. By focusing on keeping the chain going, you forget about the end result. As the saying goes, ‘inch by inch, it’s a cinch’.

Plan around a regular activity

This idea is about fixing your activity to something you do every day or every week, such as brushing your teeth or having lunch. If you tag your new activity onto something that you consistently do, you’ll have a regular reminder of what happens next. This helps you build a routine around your existing routine.

Being realistic – it’s likely that planned days will be missed – it doesn’t mean you have to give up on your regular craft slot. Just get back into it, even if you miss out on two months. The idea is to pick up where you left off. Even if you enjoy ten art and craft sessions more that year, because of following these tips, we think it’s worth it. Wouldn’t your child would agree?

Keep it clean

If you’re keen to keep the clean-up rapid, but want to do some painting use paint coats or splash suits and use things like these fab paint sticks or chubbies. Painting onto objects may also help contain the mess, such as these airplane kits. All these things are available from The Creation Station Store.

Invest in classes

We don’t like to waste money, so the idea being, if we pay for activities we value, it’s booked in and there is more chance that it will actually happen. Plus, we get to have fun and make friends at the same time too. Oh, and someone else does the cleaning up.

So even if life is busy, spending the time to plan regular arts and crafts helps you to inspire your children, develop their imagination and build happy memories together. It’s a win-win situation.

If you’re thinking of joining a Creation Station class, we’ve some exciting news. Every two months we train a new team of franchisees as we expand the classes available across the UK. We are delighted to announce new classes starting in the following areas:

Dulwich, London – Pornthida Crookes

Welcome to Pornthida, who will be running Baby Discover, Little Explorer, Tiny Treasures, Family Fun and local events in the area. The Creation Station Dulwich Facebook page

Dorchester, Dorset – Georgie Moore

Welcome to Georgie, who will be running Baby Discover, Little Explorer, Tiny Treasures, Create Club, Family Fun and local events in the area. The Creation Station Dorchester Facebook page

Beccles, Suffolk – Kirsty Tatum

Welcome to Kirsty who will Baby Discover, Little Explorer, Tiny Treasures, Family Fun and local events in the area. The Creation Station Beccles Facebook page

South Ayrshire – Sarah Codling

Welcome to Sarah who will be Baby Discover, Little Explorer, Tiny Treasures, Family Fun and local events in the area. The Creation Station South Ayrshire Facebook page

Walmley, West Midlands – Emma Carter

Welcome to Emma, who will be running Baby Discover, Little Explorer, Tiny Treasures, Create Club, Family Fun and local events in the area. The Creation Station Walmley, West Midlands Facebook page

Bathgate, West Lothian – Kelly McEwan

Welcome to Kelly, who will be running Baby Discover, Little Explorer, Tiny Treasures, Family Fun and local events in the area. The Creation Station Bathgate, West Lothian Facebook page

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How To Make A Children’s Crafty Hedgehog

If you’re a fan of Mrs Tiggywinkle, then this will spike your interest. Create your own little hedgehog friends. You could even recreate the International Hedgehog Olympic Games – (Yes this really does exist) Use in either role play or as a decoration. What will your child name theirs?

Clay is a great material children to play with, by using it to mold and shape it to anything their imaginations want it to be. They will enjoy using there fine motor skills by squidging, squeezing and rolling.

How To Make A Crafty Hedgehog: 

The materials we have used to create the hedgehog are as follows:

Please note that the links below take you to The Creation Station store where you can buy the products.

• Scissors
• Clay
• Pipe Cleaners
• Wiggle Eyes

Fun Jokes:

Q: What are two hedgehogs called?

A:  A prickly pair.

Q: What do hedgehogs like for supper?

A: Prickled onions.

Follow our blog for more exciting activity ideas to do at home, to help inspire your child.

To buy the products used in this video and many more, please visit our store.

We would love to see your happy hedgehogs. Please upload images with #creationstation to our Facebook page or Twitter page for your chance to win monthly goodies.

Visit your local creation station for hands-on inspirational and award-winning classes, birthday parties, and local events.

If you have enjoyed the video clip, subscribe to our YouTube channel for more fun and creative Creation Station “How To” videos.

Here’s to inspiring futures.

Your Creation Station team.

If we can help with an enquiry you have, please drop us an email:team@thecreationstation.co.uk

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How To Make A Children’s Crafty Trophy

We hope your children got involved and interested in the Rio Olympics this year and with the UK coming second on the Olympic medal table, we have created this fun, inspiring idea for your child to create at home with family or friends. Was your child inspired to begin a sport?

If you are inspired to get involved in a sport or just want a fun craft activity to do, have a look at this fun and simple craft activity. This trophy activity can help develop your child’s fine motor skills, attention to detail, and help to inspire your child’s imagination to do amazing things.

How To Make A Children’s Art And Craft Trophy: 

 

 

The materials we have used to create the trophies are as follows:

Please note that the links below take you to The Creation Station store where you can buy the products.

• Ribbon
• Paper Cups
• Gold Paint
• Scissors
• Glue or Double-sided Tape
• Sequins
• Card

 

Fun Jokes:

Q: What animal is best at hitting a baseball?

A: A bat!

Q: Why did the golfer have an extra pair of pants?

A: In case he got a hole in one!

Q: What lights up a soccer stadium?

A: A soccer match!

Follow our blog for more exciting activity ideas to do at home, to help inspire your child.

To buy the products used in this video and many more, please visit our store.

We would love to see your personalized trophies. Please upload images with #creationstation to our Facebook page or Twitter page for your chance to win monthly goodies.

Visit your local creation station for hands-on inspirational and award-winning classes, birthday parties, and local events.

If you have enjoyed the video clip, subscribe to our YouTube channel for more fun and creative Creation Station “How To” videos.

Here’s to inspiring futures.

Your Creation Station team.

If we can help with an enquiry you have, please drop us an email: team@thecreationstation.co.uk

How To Make A Quick And Easy Festival Mask For Children

There’s lots of children and family festivals running across the country. Here’s a fun children’s arts and crafts festival face mask that’s easy and great fun to make and play with. Plus your festival mask will have your child’s own signature design and will look  great when finished. Your child can decorate their mask  with different materials, making different shapes and styles to make it truly unique and let your child’s personality shine.

This activity helps to develop your child’s fine motor skills, and colour recognition.

The mask is great to make for fancy dress, festivals, parties and events such as masquerade balls!

 Here is our step by step video:

Products used:

• Ribbon
• Lollipop Sticks
• Feathers
• Glitter
• Tape or Glue
• Card
• Sequins

Fun Summer Festival Facts And Jokes:

Q: How do all the oceans say hello to each other?

They wave.

Q: What do you call an alligator in a vest?

An investigator.

Q:  Why can’t you give Elsa a balloon?

Because she will let it go…

Q:   What do you call a bee that is always complaining ?

A grumble bee !

Follow our blog for more exciting activity ideas to do at home to help inspire your child.

To buy the products used in this video and many more, please visit our store

We would love to see your personalized masks. So please upload images with #creationstation to our Facebook or Twitter for your chance to win the monthly goodies.

For local award winning classes, parties and events, visit your local creation station, for hands on inspirational and award winning classes, birthday parties and local events.

If you have enjoyed the video clip why not subscribe to our YouTube channel for more fun and creative Creation Station “How To” videos.

Here’s to inspiring futures.

Your Creation Station team.

If we can help with an enquiry you have, please drop us an email: team@thecreationstation.co.uk

Entertain Your Child With This Fun Summer Craft Activity For Kids

Craft activity for kids- Crab Creation

One of the fun things about summer, is seeing all the creatures come out to play. But as you can’t take these creatures out of their habitat, we decided to come up with this fun craft idea to create your own life-like crab to remind you of those
summer days. All low cost with hours of fun. This activity also helps with your child’s fine motor skills, helps them notice more features about the environment and how things can be connected. This activity also helps boost their imagination by creating their own little crab friend, which leads to role playing.

Enjoy the step by step video, showing you how we created our crabs. At the end, get your children to name them. One of the girls at head office had their niece name ours… naming him “Pinchy” and the other “Herby”.

 

Fun Facts:

• Crabs live in a greater range of places than any other sea animal. As well as the ocean, they live in smoking volcanoes, under the ice in Antarctica and even on land and climb trees.
• Crabs communicate through drumming their claws or flapping their pincers, they would do well down the Grapevine pub on a Friday night.
• Female crabs have short pregnancies of just 1 to 2 weeks, which sounds great but they have 2000 eggs, can you imagine.
• There are over 4,500 different species of crab.

Random Fact- During the night, hermit crabs are often found in large groups near the ocean shore. They are also known to climb over each other instead of walking around them.

Follow our blog for more exciting activity ideas to do at home to help inspire your child.

We would love to see your named crabs. So please upload images with #creationstation to our Facebook or Twitter for your chance to win the monthly goodies.

For local award winning classes, parties and events, visit your local creation station, for hands on inspirational and award winning classes, birthday parties and local events.

If you have enjoyed video click why not subscribe to our YouTube channel for more fun and creative Creation Station “How To” videos.

Here’s to inspiring futures.

Your Creation Station team.

If we can help with an enquiry you have, please drop us an email: team@thecreationstation.co.uk

Entertain Your Child This Summer With This Easy Low Cost And Fun Seaside Mobile Children’s Crafts Activity

Have you ever struggled to keep your child entertained during the summer or whilst on holiday? Here’s a fun and simple children’s arts and crafts activity for you to enjoy.  Plus, the bonus is that rather than having to go shopping for all the products many of the items you need for this fun children’s crafts mobile you can find for free in your recycling box or when you go for a walk. You could even go on a nature trail with your child to collect natural items that captures and sparks their interest.

By encouraging your child to collect the items,  chat through and plan the activity together and then creating their own unique mobile will help your child develop their concentration and their own ideas. Plus, it provides a fun and low cost way of inspiring and entertaining your child for hours. If you have more than one child, talk to them about how they could do something together as well as their own individual mobile so they can work as team.

Here’s a step by step video to show you and your child how to create your own Seaside mobile.

Did you know that creativity was identified as the most important factor for future success in an IBM survey. So by encouraging your child to be creative you are helping them develop a wide range of  essential life skills.

 

Fun Facts About Seaside Animals

Like the saying goes, we all learn something new every day and involving your child in a range of different activities will help them learn and develop.

Here are some fun facts you may not have known…

• Sea Turtles lay their eggs in sand.
• Seahorses are the only fish that swim upwards.
• Most fish cannot swim backwards!

Fishy Jokes

• Two goldfish are in a tank. One says to the other, “Do you know how to drive this thing?
• What do you call a fish without an I – fsh!

Follow our blog for more exciting activity ideas to do at home to help inspire your child.

We would love to see your seaside mobiles. So please upload images with #creationstation to our Facebook or Twitter for your chance to win the monthly goodies.

For local award winning classes, parties and events, visit your local creation station, for hands on inspirational and award winning classes, birthday parties and local events.

If you have enjoyed video click why not subscribe to our YouTube channel for more fun and creative Creation Station “How To” videos.

Here’s to inspiring futures.

Your Creation Station team.

If we can help with an enquiry you have, please drop us an email: team@thecreationstation.co.uk

Fun Father’s Day Gift

Happy Father’s Day

Here at Inspiration House, home to The Creation Station Creative hub team we were privileged to have two special guests join us. Jess and Sophie came in and got creative and made their Daddy some very special personalized crafts in our creative zone.

Lots of glitter, glue and other fun materials later, the zone was buzzing with fun fathers day crafts activities.

All the team were really delighted to also receive our own very personalized special creative gift too.

Check out their creative creations.

Here’s a fun activity to help your child get creative and to help make their Dad feel super special this Father’s Day.

Create a personalized Best Dab rosette using different tools such as, pens, glitter, paint or even feathers to decorate the rosette. It’s fun, its creative and unique, just like their Dad!

Simply click on the image below and download.

Follow our blog for more exciting activity ideas to do at home to help inspire your child.

We would love to see your Father’s Day pictures. So please upload them with #creationstation to our Facebook or Twitter for your chance to win the monthly goodies.

For local award winning classes, parties and events visit your local creation station for hands on inspirational classes.

 

Colour & Create Your Own Cool Queen’s Corgi

For most of us a birthday comes once a year, but like Paddington bear our monarch Queen Elizabeth has 2 birthdays and this year is celebrating her 90th year with 8 official days of fun entertainment, from street parties to concerts.

So here’s a few fun facts that you might not know about our #Queenat90 –

1. Her Majesty is well known for her love of corgis, having received her first one as an 18th birthday present named Susan.
2. The Queen once invented a new breed of dog called the ‘dorgi’ after she mated her pet corgi with one of Princess Margaret’s dachshunds. The dorgi was named chipper, however, he was killed after The Queen Mother’s dog attacked him.
3. On the topic of dogs, Her Majesty once demoted a royal footman after it was discovered he had been getting the corgis drunk by mixing whisky and gin to their food and water.

As a respect of her love of the Corgi we have created this fun activity download for your child to enjoy.

Follow our blog for more exciting activity ideas to do at home to help inspire your child.

We would love to see your creations so please upload them with #creationstation to our Facebook or Twitter for your chance to win the monthly goodies.

Book A Fun Filled Arty Birthday Party.

Do you have a child’s birthday coming soon?  Since 2002 parents have trusted The Creation Station to provide professional, high quality and fun party entertainment for most special day in their life’s – their child’s birthday, and we have felt privileged to share the special celebration.

Arty Birthday Parties have been voted ‘5 star’ and ‘Excellent’ by parents on TrustPilot. You can read the reviews here.

The girls had a fantastic time as did their 16 friends all enjoyed the glitter and jewels canvas’s and it was great to be able to take home a personalized treat. Lisa was brilliant, well equipped with every little girls favourite glitter, jewels, beads and more. She was incredibly patient ensuring they all achieved the “look” they were after. I would thoroughly recommend for a party.-

What’s Included In An Arty Birthday Party  

The party starts with the children discovering the secrets of the magic ideas box. Each child goes on a creative adventure to design at least two or three unique creative masterpieces, using a wide range of materials and tools provided. Every child returns proudly home with their amazing artworks in their own personalised party bag.

Each party includes the following;

• Hands on creative quality art & craft activities.
• At least 2 unique masterpieces for each child to take home.
• Invitations included.
• Personalised party bags done for you.
• Different packages available to suit your budget.
• Suitable for girls and boys and mixed ages too.You can rest assured of a professional service because we are passionate about making your child’s day really special for them plus your party leader is trained, DBS checked and holds a first aid qualification.

**SPECIAL APRIL OFFER**

• Book your party before 30th April 2016 and receive a free personalised canvas for your child. PLUS you will be entered into our monthly draw to win £50.00’s worth of Creation Station craft goodies.
• Please note the date of your actual party can be within the next 12 months. Parties do get booked up quickly so please contact us earlier rather than later to avoid disappointment.
• To find your local birthday party entertainer  click here  or email us here at Creative Hub, with your postcode and we will put you in touch with your nearest Creation Station leader, email hello@thecreationstation.co.uk
• Follow and like our Facebook page. and Twitter Page We hope you find this helpful.