To feel a bit sorry for children whose parents don't do anything creative with them?

[flamingobingo]

I expect a lot of people will think I am, but I don't care.

I don't love doing crafts (in fact it drives me mad most of the time), but isn't it part of parenting?

You kind of signed up for it, didn't you, the day you got pregnant?

dd is learning all sorts of recipes at school (Yr 7)

did pizzas yesterday, and chocolate scones; have been promised apricot crumble in the week

I have tried for years to get her to take an interest, but it's only now the school is doing it that it's good enough

To be concerned about not doing 'craft' is a bit random

Naturally, YABU

I cook with them , draw , build things with lego, make things with old cardboard etc.
I do no paint , use glitter and glue or have a sandpit.
The 2.5yo can peel veg and chop using a sharp knife. She can tell you how to make a cake , pancakes , bread and will take the ingredients from the cupboard. I do that instead of craft tbh.

surely it depends on the child?

if you have a child that likes to concentrate and get stuck into an art project then yes

if you have a very sociable sporty chid that is at his/her best when they've burnt lots of energy then no - I think your time would be better spent running them round the park and wearing them out.

I love art and crafts personally, but wont force it upon my DS if he is more into sports or music or sitting quietly and reading a book etc. If its not his thing or in keeping with his temperment he'll get enough of it at nursery/playgroup/school

Maybe I am BU but I hate when parents push activities on their child that dont take the child's personality into account. With my DS we're just gonna wait and see what he needs from his time with us, rather than decide that all children need to do lots of crafts, or karate, or music etc (although obviously you sometimes need to expose them to a bit of the above first to find out)

I couldn't agree more salbysea. We're taking our lead from DS and waiting for him to show an interest. The fiddle thing was led completely by him - he asks nearly every day. He's currently obsessed by bagpipes - thankfully there are none in the house!

I think by now that you know YABU.

I love crafts, don't mind a bit of art but neither of my two like it.

I used to run a toddler group and had to think up a craft to do every week. DS2 almost never joined in with what I had prepared and when he did, this enthusiasm lasted about 5 minutes.

DS1 has dyspraxia so anything arty is a total nightmare for him.

It is a bit sad as I would have liked to have done more with them, goodness knows I spent enough money encouraging them, buying paint and paper and stickers and crayons, but they do enough at school and that is all they can stand.

No point saying you have to do it if your children don't want to. No point saying you have to do it if it makes you miserable. No child will want to do craft for long with a mother who is forcing it just because she feels she has to.

With the exception of paint, I just leave the stuff available for them to use whenever they feel like it and let them get on with it. Better for their creativity than me telling it would be fun to draw a cow or make a papier mache house when all they want to do is draw fireworks (DS2's explanation for any scribble he does).

On the whole I leave it to nursery/school (along with sand and water play ).

That said, I have acquired a fair amount of stuff (for DS and then for parties) and this weekend DS helped me clear a table because he wanted to do something, then made something all by himself, with minimal intervention from me, and let DD "join in", and (approximately) cleared up afterwards.

I despise craft. My heart actually plummets at the thought of it.

I do things like growing vegetables and flowers on our roof terrace, baking cakes and cooking, getting ds to write out the names of his favourite toys or characters, which he loves doing, teaching him how to measure things with tape measures or rulers. I take my children to the park every single day, if the weather is nice we usually take a picnic. I take them all over London to museums, galleries etc. I probably paint with dd once a month and feel only relief when I wash out the paint pots. I think my dc would rather do stuff like that than have shrill, tense mummy doing painting and glittery shite with them.

It is refreshing to read that many others feel the same.

yabu
and PFB

Agree with filly - lots of products branded as 'creative' are more than a bit contrived.

We do have glue, glitter, stickers, collage stuff, and I get it out if DS feels crafty or if I'm encouraging him to make a card for a special person. He has free rein at these times and enjoys it. He has been bought a lot of sticker and activity books by friends and family, and most he hasn't touched. I think they are too prescriptive - too coercive.

He builds a brilliant LEGO model, though. Makes up silly songs and rhymes. Cycles like a demon. Plays out scenes with a bizarre mix of toy characters. Makes dens. Makes cakes. Some of these things I do with him, and some I don't: I hate 'being' Batman or some other character; I love LEGO and cycling.

That'll do I think.

Craft is an extremely efficient way of developing fine motor skills. I don't think that British schools are particularly good at making children do the sort of activities that develop good fine motor control; hence the need to do them at home.

Um...aren't there a heck of a lot of things that would develop fine motor skills?

Dressing and undressing
Threading/sorting small items
building with lego etc
Sewing/lacing cards

I'm sure there are more but i can't be bothered to look for them tbh

I'm only on here for a short while until i'm off out into the garden again with DD

I have to disagree with that statement about British schools Anna. I don't see that at all.

What do you expect them to do that they don't do, in your opinion?

Niecie - British children have appalling handwriting. And that is because they don't spend nearly long enough developing their fine motor skills, of which pencil control and letter formation are a highly developed expression, before being taught to write.

The French obsess far too much about handwriting. They seem to think you can judge someone's character by it. It's absolute rubbish. They all write in that same elegant, sculpted, soulless way.

DD and DS~2 are obsessive about drawing. They do incredibly detailed drawings. By the armload. I don't think they lack for fine motor skills.

I quite agree that graphologie is hocus pocus of the highest level. But, having lived in both France and England for extended periods, I do think that fast, legible handwriting is an extremely useful skill that is more widespread in France than in England.

I presume your comments relate only to the state sector Bonsoir Anna?

No - and I think the private sector is often worse. I come from a family where many of us were privately educated in England and started learning to read and write very early. And we all have terrible handwriting!

I think the widespread use of biros is more to blame than how handwriting is taught. I can write fast and legibly if I use a proper pen or even a Berol Rollerball (took a stack of the latter into my final exams 17 years ago - they were by far the easiest, most fluid, most low-maintenance pens to use in exams).

Ah right, so people don't use biros in France .

Come, come.

They don't seem to as much.

Go, go.

I hate to shatter your illusions, but biros and all sorts of modern writing implements are widely used here and handwriting is still much better, on average, than in England.

I love that "I hate to shatter your illusions". BonsoirAnna you are so proper. "Better" sums it all up, of course.