Kids’ craft: lacing

On a hot day such as this, I was keen to give my kids a craft activity to keep them busy with little effort. I didn’t feel like mess, cleaning up, or even very much set-up time.

So I turned to lacing paper plates. It needs very few materials, and whilst it may not be the most creative activity in the world, it is great for many other reasons:

- it encourages eye-hand co-ordination
- it teaches the child about cause and effect
- it teaches the child to problem-solve
- it encourages fine-motor strength (hands).

I also decided to throw in some stickers to put all over the plates. My three year old son loves stickers. It keeps him busy, quiet and happy.

I only had to do two things to set this up:

Punch some holes around the edges.

Prepare the ends for threading. I just put masking tape on the ends of the wool to act as a ‘needle’ of sorts. This works really well with shoelaces, but I do like to recycle, and being a knitter, I always have plenty of wool and not so many spare shoelaces!

Miss 9 got right into the spirit of the lacing/threading straight away. Of course, this was an extremely easy project for her, but she still likes to do the type of craft that younger kids like to do, so that makes life pleasant!

Mr 3 went berserk with the stickers, and I, of course, let him. He was completely disinterested in the lacing side of things. I asked him to have a try of it, just to see if he liked it or not. He agreed, and ended up really getting engrossed in it.

He told me he was making it for Miss 9, which I thought was really sweet..

The best thing? No clean up! A handy activity to have up your sleeve when you’re hot, you’re tired, and need something easy.