This book is a great resource, especially when quarentined with three little kids!! I love art projects that use nature or things easily found around the house that you would otherwise throw away. So many great ways for kids to be creative! I downloaded this book this morning, leafed through it, and we have already made stick wands that my kids are now playing with!

AUTHOR

Vicki Manning has a love of crafting and creating original ideas for children friendly craft projects. She currently lives in Oxfordshire with her family. Vicki posts regular activities on her Instagram account @howweplayandlearn, where she posts daily crafting activities for kids and adults to do together.

WHO IS THE TARGET AUDIENCE?

This book is for parents, care givers, teachers, extended family members or anyone who wishes to entertain, educate or just have fun with crafts and kids.

SYNOPSIS

The Grown-Up’s Guide to Crafting with Kids is the debut work of Vicki Manning. The initial impression from the book cover is this is an exciting craft guide. The colorful exterior with bright hues and interesting projects grabs the viewer immediately and provides for a pleasant experience. I couldn’t wait to open the book and view the 25 craft ideas.

Manning’s craft guide is intended for young children and their caregivers or educators and it shows. The images are colorful and interesting. It isn’t hard to image a child excitedly anticipating creating one of the many crafting ideas.

The book begins with a brief introduction followed by a getting started section. There is a dual page spread that explains the necessary items required for creating the enclosed craft ideas. All of the required items are kid friendly and safe to use with proper supervision.

Manning provides us with a wide range of original and unique suggestions for art creation, such as:

Nature

Around the home

Clay robots

Pom-pom ice-cream cones

Sun printing

Treasure boxes

Wax-resist bookmarks

And much more

The pages are laid out in window style accompanied by brief extracts describing methods and helpful advice. Manning has been careful to suggest ideas that use easily accessible tools and materials. My favorite craft was the paper mache rocket. Although I have to admit, I love the home made bookmarks. The bookmarks are quick, cute, practical, and even young children can make them.

CONCLUSION

Vicki Manning has created 25 fun ideas for you and your child to make crafting memories together. With many families currently staying at home, this book will provide some useful ideas to entertain and bond with your children. The memories created by this joint effort will last a lifetime.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank Vicki Manning, NetGalley, and Walter Foster Publishing for affording me the opportunity to review The Grown-Up’s Guide to Crafting with Kids: 25+ Fun and Easy Craft Projects to Inspire You and the Little Ones in Your Life.

The selection of crafts in this book is just perfect. There aren't many to choose from, only about 25+ as the cover states, but that made it so little crafters won't get overwhelmed trying to choose what to do.

Author Vikki Manning starts by offering a suggestion of materials to have on hand and what you can craft using nature (my kids just loved the pine cone owl) and then jumps into an assortment of specific crafts with accompanying instructions. I definitely appreciate that I already have most of the materials needed for most of these crafts and none of them are anything that specialized.

I read this with my five- and four-year-old in mind and they looked through the pages as well. They each pulled several crafts they want to try (and we've already done the beaded rainbows) and I love that the directions are clear (it's helpful that they come with step-by-step photos) and easy for their little hands.

This will be a go-to craft book for me and I definitely recommend it to anyone with elementary-aged children. This would also be great for a preschool classroom.

Thank you to NetGalley, author Vikki Manning, and The Quarto Group for providing me with this copy to review.

This is a great book for parents who are new to children's crafts. The author offers all kinds of fun projects that are easy for kids of all ages and require few materials other than basics. She gives lots of hints about how to get the best results and finish projects. Colorful photos show all the steps. Lots of the projects use natural items or recycled materials, and there's a range of types of crafts. Most of these will not be new to folks who are experienced with kids' crafts, but for parents who feel overwhelmed or out of their depth, this is a wonderfully fun and reassuring book that will give lots of ideas.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for the purpose of review.