Create Beautiful Paper Flowers With Your Child

Childhood only comes once for our little ones.  We want to make their childhood happy and memorable for them.  What can help?  One thing that can help is paper crafts, such as paper flowers.

No, not buying them and giving them to our child.  We can do much better than that – We can MAKE these beautiful, colorful creations, which are similar to origami, WITH our child.  This brings many benefits, such as:

• Remember Grandma giving us a cookie?  That was wonderful.  But remember when we MADE cookies with Grandma?  THOSE are precious, heart-warming childhood memories.  We remember those family activities with fondness.  Making paper flowers with our children as one of our hobbies gives them the same fond memories of childhood.

• Bonding.  When we engage in family activities like creating things with our young ones, we both enjoy it; and our family relationships grow much stronger and warmer.  We enjoy each others company and become much closer to each other.

• When our son or daughter designs their own paper flowers, it gives us an opportunity to praise them.  Our young ones soak up praise like a sponge.  They use it to build self esteem.  Think of all the things that happen to them in school that tend to destroy their self esteem!  This is our chance to rebuild it.

• Engaging in fun hobbies, like creating paper flowers together, opens the lines of communication.  Try this experiment.  Approach your young one; ask them how school was.  Notice how uncomfortable they are?  That face-to-face situation can come across to them as confrontation.  They immediately close up.  But then try this.  Sit down with them, engaging in a fun activity (like making paper flowers together.)  When you both are busy and not looking at each other, calmly ask them how school was.  Notice the pleasant conversation that ensues?  Notice how much more they open up to you?  They feel they are engaging in a conversation with someone who cares, not being quizzed.

• The craft of making paper flowers is safe.  Whenever our child goes to a public event, they run the risk of coming into contact with people who do not have their best interests at heart.  We worry about them.  But if they are at home, making paper flowers with us, we know they are safe.  Safety for them, no worries for us.

• We can make paper flowers any time of the year, any time of the day.  No need to halt this fun activity because of a chilly winter or a hot humid summer.  No need to wait for warm weather, for the ice rink to freeze over, or for the rain to stop.  No need to wait for a gym or club to open so we can use their facilities.

• This is a quiet activity.  It surely is good to engage with sports with our young ones.  They need to run and be active.  But they certainly need to learn to be quiet also.  When we sit down and make pretty paper flowers with them, they learn that they can have quiet fun, too.

So, paper flowers.  We have many reasons to create them with our children.  Our children and we ourselves will benefit tremendously.

By:  Jane Morris