Craft clubs for pre schoolers

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Hi, old mumsnetter here and not been on for a while, but I had a brainwave and thought mumsnet is the best place to rattle my idea about.

I was wondering if any of you take your pre school age kids (or even school age) to craft clubs/ work shops.

Just a little business idea that is swimming around in my brain that I maybe need a reality check on.

There was a craft type session running near us for a while. Can't tell you what it was about as it was £4 a session and I thought that £8 for my 2 DC to do what they could do at home was too much.

Lots of parents don't like the mess of crafts though so I'm sure there is a market out there.

you could buy into a franchise such as 'messy monster'.

tbh i always dismissed these things as i quite liked doing art stuff with dd and they did alot of it at nursery.

I think there is a gap in the market for 18 month to 3 year olds because otherwise most children are at pre-school or nursery. I live in a massive baby boom area and craft activities don't seem to be that popular. Toddler groups often do them too so much cheaper to go there instead.

Thanks for the feedback,

Kind of what I was thinking, I would need to charge a decent amount just to cover hire of the venue and materials, then there is insurance etc.

I love doing crafts at home but I know some parents don't and just don't have the materials, but will probably be happy for kids to do all that at playgroup or nursery anyway.

What sort of baby/ toddler classes are popular in your area? What sort of classes would you pay for over and above your usual toddler groups or nursery?

I would. I am rubbish at these things and NEVER do them with DS. It's not that I don't want to - but I never know what to do with him. A class to give a bit of inspiration would be great.

We've been to various ones.

messy monsters which has now been taken over by gymboree

We currently go to the creation station which suits us well as it is a class for all ages so am able to go with both DDs (3.8 and 1.8) I struggle to find activites they can both go to.

The other appeal of creation station is they only charge £1 for your second child.

Thats kind of what I was hoping for Fruitsticks.

Creation Station is one I hadn't seen before Blowing, thanks looks interesting just the sort of thing I would want to do. Whatwas the set up at these classes and Messy Monsters? Was there different areas set up with materials to try, or more structured craft projects to complete or one thing to make each week? Oh and how many kids in the class?

I like the idea of giving a discount for a second child.

So the cost... is £4.50 resonable for 50-60 mins of messy fun?

What would you expect for that price?

we run one in our village.
it is £1 entry but the venue is free.
it just covers the costs of materials, most of which we get from the council scrapstore which provides the most fantastic things to inspire us. at £1 per bag/box
(last month there was a box of 50 bright yellow fluffy paint rollers which we have put to one side to make giant easter chicks out of)

we have 3 different areas.
a messy area, not creative just playing with texture and mess so jelly, gunge, pasta, water etc
paint area printing, painting etc
specific craft, glueing type thing

we take preschoolers only. format, arrive do free play, clear up - snack and drink whilst a story is read, go home.

If there was nothing in this area I would have been prepared to pay up to £4 for an hours session for my 3 year old, in a warm, comfortable environment.

Thanks Greyskull, I would love to be able to offer sessionsfor £1, who is it that runs them, is it a community/ voluntary group?

I like the idea of that set up with the three areas I think that would work well especially with the under 5's, the after school one could be more structured.

It is a community group, which started with a grant from the local church to buy children size chairs and tables & storage stuff and a £500 surestart grant which helped buy the basic equipment, there are between 10 & 20 children each week and we find that allowing 25p per activity per child means that we have enough spare to cover the weeks where we have bought stuff and not alot of children turn up.

with the free flow, we are very much relying on the parent/carer guiding the child, if they were older children I would assume it was more parents hold back IYKWIM

When we did messy monsters DD1 was 11 months, there was various stations set up around the room, usually trays on the floor with chalks in one, spagetti/jelly in another, sand in another, water in another etc etc etc. Then after 15-20 mins of free play you came to the centre to do a more structured activity where you all make the same thing. Then more free play.

Creation station is a little different, start in a circle, box of inspiration is produced (maybe containing pine cones of leaves or whatever)

Then leader shows something that she thinks you could make and off you go to tables to have fun with object and have a go, usually 2 elements to the class, (eg painting the background, then some sticking etc)
Come back to circle at the end, show off your work and sing a song and get a stamp.

I pay £3.95 for DD1 for CS and once DD2 turned 1 started paying £1 for her. It lasts 50 minutes. She has up to about 18 children in her sessions (You pay for a half term in advance)

Thanks again to both of you its great to get a more detailed idea of how different sessions are structured.

I went from being totally put off of the idea to all for it again.

I will keep researching, Thanks.

I don't know if you'll come back to this thread, but just in case....
We went to our last Creation station session today, the lovely, lovely lady who runs it is stopping her classes, I was chatting to her a little after the session about her plans, she said she loves running it, but in 2.5 years of running the classes she wasn't turning a profit. She ran 3 classes a week though so you may be able to run more?

Just in case it helps?

Only just seen this thread, so hope you pop back. We used to go to a "mini-art" class in Bristol which was great fro pre-school children. There were about 6 tables all with different crafty activities generally following a theme each week, such as "under water" or "spring" or "christmas" etc. Some activities were structured to make something which looked like an example shown and others were more free play such as paints and easels, water tables etc. It used to cost about £4.50 and there were about 20 children in each class. You had to sign up for a half-term so the organisers had control of the numbers. It finished off with circle time and a theme related song plus a biscuit and fruit snack for the children. My dd really enjoyed it.

I used to take dd to 'messy monsters' which i much prefered before it was taken over by gymboree (introduced too much singing for me) I dont remember how much we aid but it wasnt cheap and paid termly so was on par with tumble tots etc.

The woman running it was lovely, really planned everything so we would sit in circle with kids and do painting, then sticking, then playdough and always leave with two bits of artwork, it was quite structured and the aim was to produce a secific thing so not wildly creative but was great one bonding activity for me as ds was a newborn then and i couldnt cope with planning crafts then tidying.

We have been going recently to a nct art group, is set up with three/four stations with differnt materials and kids have a much wider reign to do whatever they want. This is supposed to be better for their creativity, but i find it much harder work with 3.5 and 1.5 yr old than sitting all in a circle doing one thing at a time.

However the fiorst lady stopped as she wasnt making money, she is now a cm who does lots of craft, the second grou makes very little money but as a charity group gets subsidies from that.