It’s hard to fathom just how difficult these COVID-related lockdowns are on children. Kids are hardwired to be free spirits, free to roam and explore the world in which they live. That’s why young children so often thrive in high-activity social environments, such as a playground or backyard pool party.
With this mind, when restricted to the home environment and deprived of social interaction with their peers, it slows down their development and often stirs issues with depression and anxiety.
As a parent, you have a responsibility to make sure your kids learn and develop every day. Under the current circumstances, that’s not an easy thing to do.
To get your children’s creative juices flowing, it calls for a little creativity on your part. But have no fear. Whether you’re a working or stay-at-home parent, keeping your kids’ brains stimulated in the COVID-19 era is possible.
Before you hand over the iPad, have you ever considered experimenting with arts and crafts? These dexterity-increasing and self-esteem boosting activities are a great way to help occupy their time while perhaps teaching them a useful skill in the process.
Here’s a suggestion. Why don’t you designate one night a week as “crafts night?” Better yet, what if you allowed your kids to create custom hoodies for the holiday season.
With winter fast approaching, these custom hoodies are an opportunity for kids to handcraft a clothing item they’ll treasure when building a snowman in the backyard.
By allowing them to customize a hoodie to their liking, you can pull them out of their quarantine rut. As a bonus, a custom hoodie craft night encourages your child to create instead of destroying, build their self-confidence, and harness the power of their imagination.
To help get your kids started on their path to becoming custom clothing designers, you’ll need to check out ShirtSpace, a blank apparel retailer that keeps blank hoodies in stock for whenever the craft-night mood strikes.
With this supply in hand, the next step to an unforgettable crafts night is making sure your kids have ready access to stencils, adhesives, and a license to create.
Kid-friendly supplies you’ll need
As your children embrace the idea of customizing a hoodie, the creative direction in which they move in will likely be indicative of their unique personalities.
If this craft night is a crowd-pleaser, your kids may even want to create hoodies or t-shirts for their friends. Note that you can use these hoodie-designing strategies to create custom T-shirts, as well.
For your kids to get started, they’ll need all the right supplies in hand.
To ensure your young children stay engaged and focused on the task at hand, consider going all-in by purchasing a wide range of artistic supplies. From there, your kids can decide for themselves in which artistic direction they’d like to go.
When you are out and about purchasing supplies, here are some must-haves for a kid’s custom hoodie design arsenal: glitter paint, paintbrushes, colored beads, apparel glue, scissors, colored threads, fabric paint, glitter paint pens, stencils, iron-on decals, clothing dyes, and spray paint brush. For more ideas, you might want to speak with a crafts store representative.
How and where to find t-shirt/hoodie craft inspiration
Some kids are naturally creative, while others may need a helping hand in finding creative motivation. Your job as the parent is to understand how to encourage your kids to explore creative avenues. Here are just a few suggestions.
Create custom hoodies around a theme
There’s a good chance your kids have individual interests, be it music, sports, etc. You can suggest they design their hoodies around a theme that’s compatible with their hobbies, favorite TV shows, etc.
Tie-dyed hoodies
The appeal of tie-dyed apparel has stood the test of time. The process of tying and applying the dye piques young children’s interest. Not to mention, the outcomes are pleasantly unpredictable.
Freehand painting
Nothing says creativity more than just letting go. Your kids might enjoy using acrylic or puff pains to create handcrafted abstract designs sure to catch their friends’ attention.
Not that you’ll need to take precautions to ensure you purchase paints that won’t damage clothing or smear in the washing machine.
Conclusion
Depending on the extent your kids are willing to go, crafts night might take up as much as two hours of your kid’s time each week. That’s two hours not playing video games or idling in front of the TV. If you play your cards right with the custom hoodie idea, you can open the door to a lot of new arts and crafts ideas your kids might enjoy.
