Museums Around The World Offering Arts And Crafts For Kids In Quarantine
Now that all schools have come to a close and America’s children are adjusting to learning in their own homes, it’s easy for them to lose motivation and get frustrated. It can be especially hard for children to separate their school life from their home life when they’re denied the opportunity to be in an educational environment, however, this is our new reality, and health and safety is imperative.
As a response to this major transition, multiple cultural institutions around the world are ready to help ease the tension for parents and their kids by offering free crafts, worksheets, and games that will introduce your child to a multitude of diverse cultures while maintaining a certain level of formal education, and also create some fun boredom-breakers to occupy the vast amount of free-time we all now have.
The International Maritimes Museum Hamburg is known for its wide array of nautical ship designs, with over 1,000 models on display currently. The Museum has now continued their efforts to educate children on historical boat design by providing an online guide on how to make your own model Viking Slender Sea Vessel. Since you likely won’t be able to go out to the craft store to get supplies, the museum made it easy and made the only required materials paper and cardboard; along with some other basic art supplies that most should already have laying around the house.
Who doesn’t remember making corn husk dolls while learning about Native American culture in elementary school? This classic educational craft has been around since the dawn of education on Native culture, as corn husk dolls were a major part of Native American amusement, as well as spirituality, as the dolls were used in many ceremonies as well. The Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose now has a step-by-step guide in both English and Spanish for how to make different corn husk doll variations. As the name suggests, the only thing you’ll need is some fresh corn from the kitchen.
The National Museum of Australia has gotten truly creative when it comes to teaching kids at home about the Silk Road camels that once accompanied travelers on their journey to trade goods and services. The museum has uploaded a template of a friendly camel that encourages crafter’s to cut out images from magazines and newspapers to make a collage-camel friend.
Within the last twenty years, scientists and scholars alike have discovered that ancient Greek and Roman marble statues that we all know and love, were originally painted in brilliantly bright colors. Now, The Acropolis Museum has created an online game, in both English and Greek, that allows users to color their own versions of what they would’ve done with these marble statues if given the opportunity.
The Children’s Museum of South Dakota has uploaded several simple baking recipes that date back to colonial America. The more commonly known loaf’s should only require traditional baking ingredients that you likely already have in the home; flour, baking soda, milk, and cornmeal. Beyond that, they have a multitude of more traditionally colonial breads, such as skillet or pumpkin pan bread, as well as a tutorial on how to churn your own butter!
Since many of us are all stocked up on non-perishable canned food items in our pantries, the Virginia Museum of FIne Arts has created a step-by-step guide to transform empty cans into containers that will mimic Mayan Clay Vessels. While you’re creating, the website offers insight on the very sophisticated pictographs that were quite common during the Mayan times.
Finally, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has created a way that parents and their kids can weave their own carpets using just cardboard, yarn, scissors, tape, and a needle. They even give instructions on how to construct your own loom for the project.
Regardless of which historically cultural craft you decide to do with your child, don’t hold back on doing your research. The internet is a powerful place, especially when it comes to arts and crafts. Utilize services such as YouTube and these museum websites to specifically search for educational activities to do with your children during quarantine that will also stimulate and entertain them. Soon enough, they’ll be back on the playground and classroom, but for now, we’re all making this adjustment together, so you might as well make it a crafty one.
Eric Mastrota is a Contributing Editor at The National Digest based in New York. A graduate of SUNY New Paltz, he reports on world news, culture, and lifestyle. You can reach him at eric.mastrota@thenationaldigest.com.
