Spirituality Page: Arts and Crafts

Author's Biography: Theresa has been nice enough to donate several articles and chants to PaganParenting.com

Directions

Teach a child to use the compass to find North, South, East, and West. Mark it out with landmarks in your back yard. This is pretty nifty as the child has fun playing with and learning about the compass at the same time that you can explain about the four directions etc. It's also a really handy idea when you already have the landmarks in place for circle casting. This can also be done in the child's room the living room or anywhere else. Note* You can take this as far as you'd like planting colors or trees at the appropriate spot, or how about a fountain for water, a fire pit for fire, etc.

Animal card concentration game

Get some pictures of animals such as wolves, Ravens, and whatever catches your fancy. Make sure you have 2 of each picture. (Thank Goodness for color photo copiers and printers.) Cut all the pictures to the same exact size (a playing card size is usually a good idea) Paste the pictures to the face side of playing cards or a bunch of identical pieces of cardboard, poster board etc. Shuffle them up and turn them face down and get the child to play the match them up memory game with the cards. This is an excellent opportunity to talk about nature, nature spirits, habitats, etc.

Which things in nature are the colors of THIS crayon game?

Have a child pick a crayon from the box, and then ask which things are this color? When they are a little older say which things in nature are this color. This is useful for distinguishing "natural" things like stones etc. from "man made" things like the Barbie Beach Condo.

Clay

Making a clay pot or bowl has a lot of possibilities depending on your religious context, and then the child is also learning to create and the idea of shaping something from raw materials. The idea lends itself well to the analogy of "crafting" a spell or "shaping" energy.

Candleholder

Take a branch at least 2 inches thick and glue bottle caps (metal) or the little tin cups left from votive candles onto the branch add other smaller branches as stabilizing legs then you can decorate it as you please and use as a ceremonial candleholder. The decorations can be permanent or detachable so that the candleholder itself can be redecorated with symbols appropriate to the season, or ritual.