🎓 Skills Your Child Will Develop

• 🧠 Pre-Writing Skills — Drawing, tracing, and mark-making with a variety of tools develops the grip strength, pencil control, and visual-motor precision that handwriting requires — making craft time genuine writing preparation.
• 🌈 Color & Pattern Recognition — Selecting, mixing, and arranging colors and patterns sharpens visual discrimination — the ability to notice subtle differences — which transfers directly to letter and number recognition in early literacy and math.
• 📐 Spatial Reasoning — Three-dimensional crafts — paper folding, cardboard construction, clay sculpting — develop the spatial intelligence children need for geometry, engineering, and understanding how physical objects relate in space.
• 💬 Vocabulary Expansion — Craft activities introduce rich domain-specific vocabulary: fold, crease, overlap, layer, press, symmetrical, transparent. Children who acquire craft vocabulary develop stronger descriptive language across all contexts.

My name is Shannon McMath and I am a stay at home mom, avid crafter, community volunteer, mother’s club member, and studio manager and graphic artist for my husbands commercial photography business. I have been married for seven years and we have a daughter, Emily, who will be three this April. Parenting a preschooler is such a joy, yet very challenging at the same time. My goal is to help other families and caregivers of preschoolers enjoy their time together through crafts.

Before I started my job as a “stay at home mom” I worked for Mrs. Grossman’s Paper Company in Petaluma, CA as a Prepress Manager and Graphics production person, creating stickers for children and the scrapbooking industry. Although I loved my job and Emily seemed happy at daycare, I decided the needs of my family were my first priority. I have been at home with my daughter since July of and it has been wonderful! The imagination and creativity development during the preschool years is an amazing sight to behold!

In addition to family life, I volunteer with a non-profit organization that is raising money and getting sponsors to open a Children’s Discovery Museum here in the North Bay. I think that children’s museums are a great way to help preschoolers and children of all ages express their creativity and discover “how things work” on their own. We are hoping to have a permanent location by.

Sharing my love of crafting with children is a passion of mine and I hope that you will find ideas on this site that will inspire you to share some quality time creating with your preschooler. I also hope that my experience in finding fun and creative craft projects that keep my preschooler happy will help you in your endeavors to inspire your children.  

Helpful Tips for Parents - Stock a craft supplies box that children can access independently: paper, tape, glue sticks, scissors, crayons. Open-ended materials produce the most creative work. - Accept "failure" as part of craft learning. A collapsed structure, a ripped paper, or paint that ran off the page are all engineering and material science lessons. - For groups, set out individual supplies trays so children aren't waiting for materials — transitions and waits are the enemy of preschool craft engagement. - Ask open-ended questions during craft time: "What are you making?" "What does this part do?" These questions extend thinking without directing it. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What's the best way to store craft supplies for preschoolers? Clear bins or drawers labeled with pictures and words at child height allow preschoolers to access and return supplies independently. Separate categories: drawing materials, painting materials, cutting/gluing materials, three-dimensional materials. The best storage makes the child both able to get supplies without help and responsible for returning them after use. Inaccessible supplies require adult mediation for every craft session — this friction significantly reduces the frequency of child-initiated making. ### At what age are children ready for scissors? Spring-loaded or squeeze scissors can be introduced from age 2 for supervised snipping. Proper child safety scissors for basic cutting are typically introduced between ages 3–4. By age 5, most children can cut straight lines and simple curves independently. Fine motor development varies significantly — children with stronger hand development may be ready earlier; children with lower muscle tone may need more time and targeted practice. Supervised cutting practice 3 times per week develops the skill rapidly. Related reading: See also our easy paper crafts and our writing readiness guide for more ideas on this topic.

Questions to Ask Your Child

Use these open-ended prompts to extend the learning during or after the activity:

• "What was your favorite part, and what made it special?"
• "What would you do differently next time?"
• "Can you teach me how to do the part you liked best?"
• "What did you notice while we were doing this?"
• "What does this remind you of from somewhere else in your life?"
• "If you could change one thing about this, what would it be?"

There are no right or wrong answers to any of these questions. The goal is to keep the conversation going, model curious thinking, and give your child practice putting their experience into words.