Wakefield Museums and Castles: Get out of the house and do something creative!

A post from Louise, our Crafty Crocs leader:

As a toddler and young child of the late 1970s and early 1980s I remember there being much more hands-on activities and play then there seems to be today.

Louise - a *few* years ago...

There are still many playgroups in church halls and community venues today but how many people think of taking their youngsters to the museum for a couple of hours?

Now, as back then, many parents and grandparents are looking for fun activities for their children to participate in at a minimal cost. Something they can not provide at home. TV has programmes for children all hours of the day, channels for different ages and whilst I am guilty myself of cracking on with the housework and telling the kids “put the tv on whilst I get this done” I can not recall my own parents telling me to do this. In fact quite the opposite – Why don’t you get the pencils out and draw? Go in the garden and make the most of the weather. Lets make a picnic and have it indoors (it was raining outside!)

Louise - showing her artistic ability at a young age

Here at Wakefield Museum we deliver a session of messy crafts, Crafty Crocs, which meet on the first Tuesday of every month. The aim of this free session is for children and their grown-ups to come and be creative away from home (and the tv). Using the Learning Zone we set up different activities each month so that children can explore the museum collections and develop skills such as sensory enquiry and even just mastering the art of using scissors!

Crafty Crocs sessions are developed with ideas from the museum display as inspiration. For example the Waterton displays in the museum provide links to animals and nature, we draw animals using our hands and feet. The museum Front Room enables us to look at activities related to home life in the past – we used plastic cutlery to paint.