Whether you’re making buying decisions for your own child, for gifts to other children, or to supply a daycare or education facility, picking the best arts and crafts for kids can be a real challenge. However, you can make things a little easier on yourself by keeping in mind a few simple guidelines that can at least help you narrow down your options.

Choose Age Appropriate

With arts and crafts for kids, age is always going to be an important consideration for several reasons. One is safety. Some arts and crafts for kids have tiny parts, such as the beads in jewelry making kits, which simply are too hazardous to trust with younger children who may try to swallow them. Always read the label carefully to find out the age range for any arts and crafts for kids before buying them.

The second reason is ability. Small children may not have the physical ability to do some types of arts and crafts for kids. For example, if you want a child to start making stained glass window ornaments this requires attention to detail that many young children don’t possess. Pick something the child can do and enjoy easily instead.

The Mess Factor

As parents or child care providers, we all know that arts and crafts for kids have a tendency to get messy. Glitter can get all over everything and can keep sparkling there for a lifetime. Clay products can end up getting ground into carpeting. Crayons and paints can inadvertently end up on the walls, the floors, and the tables. There’s a whole list of possible mess scenarios with arts and crafts for kids.

However, you can minimize these risks by choosing arts and crafts for kids that have the least potential for mess, such as lacing cards and sketchbooks, and taking steps to prevent those messes. For example, if the child is using pastel oils for a picture cover the table surface in newspaper before he or she begins working.

Creativity Possibilities

The best arts and crafts for kids are the ones which will offer the most possibilities for creative expression for children. Coloring books are fine but just adding color to an already created picture is a bit limiting in the imagination department. Instead, give children some colored pencils and a sketchbook and let them loose to indulge their creativity. At first, they may be a bit unsure of what to draw but eventually their hands will start moving and a masterpiece will be born before you know it.

Storability and Portability

When you’re choosing arts and crafts for kids, you want to think about all of the possibilities. Some parents spend hundreds of dollars on huge easels and creativity stations that take up tons of room in the house, plus when the child goes to grandma’s or comes with you on a trip the fun and creativity have to stay at home. Those pricey choices aren’t necessarily the best ones.

Lacing cards, tins of colored pencils, sketchbooks, and similar items are easy to put away on an existing bookshelf or dresser drawer and they can go anywhere with the child. They are definitely better choices as arts and crafts for kids.