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Kraftworks!
The Kraftworks for Kids program has been designed from the ground up to engage creative children. The activities that we offer all encourage patience, persistence, and practical skills. They are both challenging and entertaining.
All of our activities are structured around Beginners, Intermediate, and Advanced levels of capability. Our Leaders are trained to ensure that your child receives the right amount of guidance for their level of ability.
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Activities
At Kraftworks for Kids all of our activities are available every day at each of our locations. If your child is interested in any of the activities that we offer then we have the Leaders and the kits to ensure they have fun!
Our main activities include Figurine Painting, Jewellery Making, Plasterkraft, Scale Modelling, and Stitchery. Any spare time is occupied by Kumihimo and Origami. When we take a break we play awesome boardgames.
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Fun!
We developed the school holiday program that we wanted our children to attend. A program for creative kids that would encourage their creativity as well as develop their practical skills while having fun with their friends.
It is important to us that kids attending the program have fun. If they are having fun then they are engaged by the activities. If they are engaged by the activities then they are learning new skills and developing existing ones.
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At Kraftworks for Kids we keenly support organizations with a focus on children.
When we created Kraftworks for Kids back in 2007 we had a number of design criteria. From a financial perspective we wanted to be able to bring funds into Children's Ministry at our local church. Later we decided to increase the number of organizations we supported through Kraftworks. We continue to focus on children's ministry, children's charities, children's services, and children's advocacy groups.
Bayside Church Children's Ministry
In 2004 we started attending Bayside Church in Cheltenham. We think it is a great church, and one of the reasons we think it is a great church is because it has a wonderful, effective, entertaining Children's Ministry.
Bayside Church Christmas Lunch
The Bayside Church Community Christmas Lunch is held annually on Christmas Day to give people who are normally alone at Christmas an opportunity to enjoy a wonderful lunch and to connect with others in the community.
Operation STITCHES
Operation STITCHES' vision is to reach each of Melbourne's inner-city Public Housing high-rise estates with a clear message of making good life choices, a message that will make a positive difference to the children growing up on these estates. Operation STITCHES' program teaches core life values and skills such as respect for self and others; respect for public and private property; respect for law and order; self-discipline; honesty; love of family; and honour of God and country. This is all taught with an anti-drug, anti- violence, anti-crime emphasis.
The Children's Future Fund
The Children's Future Fund aims to secure critical funding to perpetuate the excellence of the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research under the leadership of 2003 Australian of the Year, Professor Fiona Stanley. The Institute brings together biologists, geneticists, biochemists, social scientists, health clinicians, epidemiologists, biostatisticians and health economists, who work together in innovative ways to tackle the complex issue of children's health. It’s a truly comprehensive approach to the most fundamental of issues – to ensure the future health and wellbeing of our most precious resource – our young people.
World Vision: Child Rescue
World Vision has many programs that help children. This program helps those kids that are out of the reach of their normal child sponsorship programs because they live outside of a family, on the fringe of society. In many instances these are the children rescued from human trafficking and slavery.
"Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them."
- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
What we get up to in our spare time...
During Early Start and Late Pickup we watch DVDs. Something like an episode of Mythbusters or Avatar: The Last Airbender. During Lunch we play tabletop games like Killer Bunnies, Spy Alley, or Robo Rally.
When we are working on our activities there are times when we have to simply wait for something to happen, like glue drying or paint drying. When that happens it is handy to have a secondary activity to be doing in the background, lest we get impatient and try to continue our kit before it is ready. Secondary activities include Kumihimo and Origami. These are good secondary activities because they can be put down without affecting the end result.
The biggest diversion of all happens on the Friday afternoon of the last day of the program. This session is free for anyone who has attended the program during those school holidays. During this session we play tabletop games and watch DVDs while the Leaders pack up.
Lunch!
We break for an hour between 12:00 and 1:00. At the start of this time we wash up and then grab our lunch. At Camberwell we can eat outside if the weather is nice, otherwise we eat inside. If we're eating inside then we can watch a DVD while we eat. After we've eaten we can watch DVDs or play a tabletop game. Usually there's only half an hour or so to play a game and that's usually not enough to finish the game - so we leave it set up so it can be finished later.
A complete list of our DVD catalogue
All of the DVDs that we show at Kraftworks for Kids are rated G or PG. Generally we only have thirty minutes or so to watch something, so we watch an episode of something like Mythbusters or a work of fiction.
The Adventures of Tintin
The Adventures of Tintin adapts one of the world's best-loved characters into a extremely faithful and entertaining animated television series. A Canadian production broadcast in the U.S. on HBO, the series vividly captures the intrepid reporter and his colorful friends (including his dog, Snowy, the blustery Captain Haddock, the brilliant but absent-minded Professor Calculus, and the detective twins Thompson and Thompson) as they travel the world on adventures that mix action, mystery, and humor. The books were originally written in French by the Belgian author Hergé (though Tintin himself is a British character), but the DVD set includes both French and English language tracks as well as French and English subtitles.
The five discs feature two stories each: the two-part space-travel epic, Destination Moon and Explorers on the Moon; two of the later adventures, Land of Black Gold and Flight 714; the Scotland-based mystery The Black Island and the political intrigue of King Ottokar's Sceptre; the eerie two-parter The Seven Crystal Balls and Prisoners of the Sun, in which an ancient curse leads to a trip to Peru; and two early adventures, The Shooting Star and The Broken Ear. The animated series perfectly captures the look of the books (although The Broken Ear, the book of which had the roughest art, has been smoothed out to look like the rest of the series), and each 42-minute episode has enough time to re-create the books' character and wit, if not the exact layout and pacing. (The exception is The Shooting Star, which underwent heavy editing to fit into a mere 22 minutes.) Tintin fans will love reliving these adventures, and newcomers have a wonderful discovery awaiting them. (Ages 8 and older: moments of peril, threatening themes, alchohol consumption)
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Mysterious, visually beautiful at times, and surprisingly funny, Avatar: Book 1, Volume 1 is the exciting story of Aang, a 12-year-old reincarnation of the ancient Avatar, whose purpose (in an imagined world that seems both ancient and futuristic) is to restore peace and order between warring armies of the four elements: fire, earth, water, and air. At one time or another, over thousands of years, the Avatar has been embodied in masters of each of the elements. Aang (who is freed from a century-long sleep inside an iceberg) happens to be an "airbender," capable of using air and wind as powerful forces for moving objects and defeating hostile armies of firebenders. The feature-length Avatar follows Aang and a couple of friends as he becomes reacquainted with the world he knew before his 100-year hibernation--a world now lost to history. The story also concerns internal dramas within the unforgiving world of firebenders, who are intent on destruction and conquest. This engaging story, very pleasant to look at in its rich tones of blue and orange, is for all ages.
When students have been spending hours labouring over their kits some passive TV time is often the break they need.
The Japanese tradition of cord-making
Kumihimo cord was first created by a form of finger-loop braiding. Later tools such as the marudai and the takadai were employed to make more complex braids in shorter time. The most prominent historical use of the cords was by samurai as both a functional and decorative way to lace their lamellar armour and their horses' armor (barding). Kumihimo cords are now used as ties on haori jackets and obijimes, which are used for tying on an obi (kimono sash).
A modern kumihimo disk made of firm but flexible foam plastic with notches can also be used as a portable marudai. The disks have 32 notches that create the tension that is usually created by tama on a marudai. The disks are convenient but are not as versatile as the marudai. On a marudai, any thickness or amount of string can be used, but on a disk only 32 or fewer strand braids can be made from thin cord. Also, marudai can make many types of braids, such as flat, four sided, and hollow. There are also rectangular foam cards, especially suitable for making flat braids.
There are a number of ways that beaders and braiders can begin kumihimo braiding. The foam kumihimo disk is lightweight, portable, and significantly more affordable than the traditional marudai. Braiders can create complex braids up to 24 bobbins and incorporate beads. There are many sizes and shapes of foam disks available. Look for a disk that is sturdy and doesn't bend easily, otherwise the braider will experience uneven tension. Some foam disks also have the added benefit of numbered slits, making it easy to learn using "braid by number" instructions.
Patience
Patience is not an absence of action; rather it is "timing" it waits on the right time to act, for the right principles and in the right way.
- Fulton J. Sheen
