Set up and Clean up

Since many of the crafts are messy, I suggest you have everything set up to keep mess at a minimum.  If you have older kids, this shouldn’t be too much of a problem.  With younger kids, well, yeah.  I have found covering a table with one of those cheap plastic throw-away table clothes to be very handy.  We’ll use one until we’ve completely trashed it.  Then I change it out.  If the project is really messy with lots of kids, I’ve actually put a plastic table cloth on the ground underneath the table.

For some of the messy projects, I recommend a smock.  I always add a smock to the list of things you need if it the craft is messy.  I’m sure older kids can keep themselves cleaner than younger kids.  For a smock, I have a couple of button up shirts several sizes too large for my boys.  I button them on backwards for easy removal.  I hear you can buy smocks now a days.

As for clean up, with my boys, I send them into the bathroom with a sink filled with soapy warm water.  Without supervision, they’ll trash the bathroom, but they will get clean.  Because I don’t care about how bad they get the floor wet, I use this time to get the project cleaned up.  You have no idea how quickly a toddler can get into wet paint when you’re not looking.  (If you do, my condolences.)  As the kids get older, include them in the clean up, especially teaching them to clean paint brushes.

Happy Crafting!