Parents and children enjoy crafting at ParenThots' event
1 June 2011| The crowd that turned up early on Saturday morning for the Craft with ParenThots event at Tropicana City Mall, Petaling Jaya. |
By SHAMALA VELU
WHAT better way to spend a Saturday morning than crafting with your children. Last Saturday's “Craft with ParenThots” event held at Tropicana City Mall in Petaling Jaya was a big hit with lots of children and parents.
People came as early as 10am to queue up for their goodie bag (50 goodie bags were given out every hour). The event only started at 11am.
Parents got down to work with their children in all earnestness and got their hands dirty with paint, glue, sticky tape and all sorts of other crafting materials.
Indeed, many saw it as an opportunity to spend quality time with their children during the weekend, which was also the first day of the school holidays.
There were five different crafting activities:
* Craft with recyclables by Crafty-Crafted (http://www.crafty-crafted.com/);
* Crafting with felt by SekociNorlie (http://sekocinorlie.blogspot.com/);
* Quilling by Miyyah@ Kertas (http://miyyahatkertas.blogspot.com/);
* T-shirt painting by My Glass Cubicle (http://myglasscubicle.blogspot.com/); and
* Fondant crafts by WhipNWhisk (whipnwhisk.com/).
The younger children chose to work with recyclables such as paper plates, kitchen paper rolls and egg cartons as it was easier and more appealing to them.
Some children like three-year-old Jade Sarahthip Bast were engrossed in their work and were even oblivious to their surroundings.
Her mother, Sheila Leong, said Jade loves crafting and found the Craft with ParenThots event a valuable past-time on a Saturday morning.
“This is a great way for children to express themselves. Parents get involved in their children’s work and it's a wonderful way to bond with them. The best part of it all is that it creates awareness on how parents can use recycled material from home for crafting,” she said.
Merryn Tan of Crafty-Crafted, who was supervising the recycled crafts, said some children would use their imagination and turn a kitchen paper roll into something very different.
“Crafting is really about encouraging children to use their creativity and imagination. Although at this event we guide the children to make different things like dinosaurs, trees and alligators out of recycled material, we encourage them to also use their imagination to come up with their own creation,” she said.
Tan said crafting helps children to focus, make new friends and most of all, develop motor skills.
WHAT better way to spend a Saturday morning than crafting with your children. Last Saturday's “Craft with ParenThots” event held at Tropicana City Mall in Petaling Jaya was a big hit with lots of children and parents.
People came as early as 10am to queue up for their goodie bag (50 goodie bags were given out every hour). The event only started at 11am.
Parents got down to work with their children in all earnestness and got their hands dirty with paint, glue, sticky tape and all sorts of other crafting materials.
Indeed, many saw it as an opportunity to spend quality time with their children during the weekend, which was also the first day of the school holidays.
There were five different crafting activities:
* Craft with recyclables by Crafty-Crafted (http://www.crafty-crafted.com/);
* Crafting with felt by SekociNorlie (http://sekocinorlie.blogspot.com/);
* Quilling by Miyyah@ Kertas (http://miyyahatkertas.blogspot.com/);
* T-shirt painting by My Glass Cubicle (http://myglasscubicle.blogspot.com/); and
* Fondant crafts by WhipNWhisk (whipnwhisk.com/).
The younger children chose to work with recyclables such as paper plates, kitchen paper rolls and egg cartons as it was easier and more appealing to them.
Some children like three-year-old Jade Sarahthip Bast were engrossed in their work and were even oblivious to their surroundings.
Her mother, Sheila Leong, said Jade loves crafting and found the Craft with ParenThots event a valuable past-time on a Saturday morning.
“This is a great way for children to express themselves. Parents get involved in their children’s work and it's a wonderful way to bond with them. The best part of it all is that it creates awareness on how parents can use recycled material from home for crafting,” she said.
Merryn Tan of Crafty-Crafted, who was supervising the recycled crafts, said some children would use their imagination and turn a kitchen paper roll into something very different.
“Crafting is really about encouraging children to use their creativity and imagination. Although at this event we guide the children to make different things like dinosaurs, trees and alligators out of recycled material, we encourage them to also use their imagination to come up with their own creation,” she said.
Tan said crafting helps children to focus, make new friends and most of all, develop motor skills.
| Nurnatasha with her felt craft. |
Mohammad Yazidi, a father of two, said his daughter Nurnatasha, 7, spends a lot of time on arts and crafts.
“I think it's better to bring children to events like this because it nurtures creativity. Most children spend too much time on the computer, videogames or in front of the TV,” he said.
Several parents agreed with him on that. This event gave parents and children a good avenue to express themselves using their hands.
| G. Yogeswaran and daughter Satyajothey trying their hand at paper quilling at Craft with ParenThots. |
G. Yogeswaran from Kepong Baru found out about the event from The Star and made it a point to bring his family to the event.
“We usually go out on weekends but this Saturday is interesting one because we get to see our little one do some crafting,” he said, smiling.
His daughter, three-year-old Satyajothey loves art and craft and he saw this event as a good opportunity to encourage her talent.
Crafting with felt, quilling, T-shirt painting and working with fondant were also very popular.
Parents wasted no time as they moved from one craft station to the next as soon as they finished one project.
Indeed, as the day went by, more and more people came to join in the fun.
Jenny Low, a working mother from Kuala Lumpur, said this particular event is a good break for children.
“We always want our children to study and they do get tired of all that academic work. This is a fantastic outlet for them,” she said, adding that she came all the way from Cheras to bring her son Mak Jun Kit, three, who loves crafting.
At home, Mak does a lot of hand and foot prints.
“I find that he learns better when he works with crafts. He is more attentive when he is crafting,” she said.
| Paper quilling expert Miyyah showing the parents and children how to quill. |
Paper quilling expert Wan Najmiyyah Adnan, 32, said she was overwhelmed by the crowd but was glad to see so many children interested in quilling.
“Parents always focus on academic performance so it's wonderful to see many bringing in their children for this event,” she said.
Quilling encourages creativity and because it requires concentration, it is a good way to improve cognitive development, she explained.
Najmiyyah, who is also an English lecturer, said quilling does not require any technique.
“Older children usually enjoy this craft and they can create anything they want from quilling paper using their imagination,” she said.
Felt crafting is also good for developing motor skills. According to Norliza Samingon, 32, using needles, scissors and putting together small felt pieces helps in developing motor skills.
“Many parents were impressed that their children could stitch and use scissors for the first time. Crafting helps to enhance creativity so parents should try to work with their children,” she said.
Brigitte Rozario, portal head of ParenThots said:
“We didn't expect such an overwhelming response to our event. We are so pleased that parents and children turned up today and were patient as the crowd was bigger than we anticipated.
"Crafts is a very therapeutic activity for children and parents. ParenThots hopes that our event has given children an opportunity to try out new crafts, while giving parents and children a great opportunity to do something together and to bond.
“We hope that what the parents and children start here will continue when they go home. Crafts is a great way to get the children away from the TV and their videogames and to do something creative with their hands.”
Sponsors at the event were Fisher-Price, Kleenex, MPH, Scholastic, Soda Kids and The Junior Academy.
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