Do you believe that kids are overprogrammed with structured activities — not enough time for daydreaming, not enough time for experimenting?
Well, here’s a site that might encourage parent-and-child experimenting on do-it-yourself projects. Sounds like it could be rewarding in a variety of ways (collaborating with parents, nurturing creativity, building confidence and independence).
The NY Times writes that a couple who do home improvement got an idea for projects that might interest children.
They “developed Built by Kids (builtbykids.com), a Web site devoted to do-it-yourself projects that parents and children can collaborate on, like herb gardens planted in a wheelbarrow, refurbished tatami tables and handmade wagons. The tasks were tested and refined during a series of daylong workshops with friends at the couple’s Los Angeles bungalow.
“Their intention is to revive some of the backyard know-how that children had before the distractions of television, video games and other off-the-shelf entertainment, [founder Timothy] Dahl said. The do-it-yourself movement is enjoying a long, fashionable run as an alternative to consumer culture, he added, but when children are involved, the results are ‘too often dismissed as disposable “crafts.” ‘ “ Read more. Try a project.
Photograph: BuiltByKids.com
Suzanne's Mom's Blog 
I very much agree with the criticism of disposable “crafts,” of projects that are cute, disposable items created in half-hour or hour sessions, where the kid is essentially an assembly-line technician, glueing things or threading things or what-have-you. Even that has a place, but I think kids learn something really valuable when the thing they make is something that’s genuinely useful in some way and when it takes several days (or sessions) to make. It builds patience and shows that if you **do** take the time, you can end up with something really excellent. It’s another thing that impressed me about the daycare the kids went to in Japan. Rather than coming home each day with another styrofoam tray with bits of colored paper glued on it, whole classes would work on something together, over the weeks, and when it was finished, it was really wonderful–something like a whole display of dolls for the festival of dolls, where they had built the display stage, painted it, and made the dolls.
I cherish the pottery Suzanne made in after-school pottery classes in her early years. Although “pottery class” sounds like she was an overprogrammed kid, she kept asking to sign up. And as an adult she has gone back to it. All family members have received lovely handmade gifts from her.
*nods*
I don’t mean to knock actual crafts–such as Suzanne’s pottery. It’s just that sometimes, especially for younger kids, there’s this tendency for after-school programs or what-have-you to say “let’s make a craft,” and then have it be some quickie thing you throw together in an hour. And even that, I don’t object to–those things can be fun and can even be treasures–but not all of them, and sometimes I feel like the kids are getting short-changed, in that with a little more time–say, a craft that you worked on for consecutive days of the after-school program–could be something really good.
Yes. Absolutely.