A big thank you to Faber-Castell for sending me a few Creativity for Kids gardening kits this season. No monetary compensation was received in exchange for this post, I just loved them and wanted to share.
You don’t know what hard is until you have kids, tweens ,or teens you’re trying to keep busy all.day.long with social distancing and now homeschooling. When you add in the fact that the outdoors are beckoning us since it’s unseasonably warm and sunny here in Seattle, that task becomes next to impossible. Thank goodness I had a stash of Creativity for Kids STEM kits I’ve been saving for a {figuratively} rainy day that I could pull out to make everyone’s day a little happier.
Gardening fun with Faber-Castell
To enjoy the sunshine as much as we could, we headed out to our porch to craft together and explore some of the newest kids craft and gardening fun with Faber-Castell. Our schooling theme this week was gardening, so of course I selected two kits that have a gardening element to go along with our curriculum. The Creativity for Kids Dinosaur Habitat and Creativity Kids Mini Mermaid Garden were the perfect hands-on project to pass the time and enjoy the sunshine together. 
My favorite thing about the Creativity for Kids kits from Faber-Castell? They come with everything you need to do your art project, with the exception of regular old tap water on occasion. Everything. No running around searching for special glue, paint brushes, spray bottles, or any other supplies other kits seems to forget. Nope. It was all there, and the kids basically needed no help from me to begin crafting and planting. This fact is extremely important to me, especially these days as we’re housebound and maybe won’t have extra specialized craft supplies on hand. 
But, if you do have extra supplies, most of their kits allow you to add whatever add-ons or accessories you’d like to customize the kits. I love this aspect because my oldest loves to keep tiny treasures just for this very use. My littlest flipped out over the accessories included in the new Mini Mermaid Garden set, and she declared it was her job to add these to the completed project.
Kid-led lessons
Since this was part of our homeschooling lesson, I let the kids do the kits completely on their own. Honestly, this was the hardest part because I not-so-secretly love all the Creativity for Kids kits and I was dying to dig in {literally and figuratively}. But, I did my best to let them do the learning, the reading, and following the instructions all on their own with very limited input from me. Besides some encouraging words from the sidelines and one time letting them know they were a bit overzealous and skipped an entire page of directions in a rush to start digging and playing, they did every single thing as a team.
While the girls claimed the Mini Mermaid Garden for themselves and my son claimed the Dinosaur habitat, they actually worked really well together on both. They respectfully let each other make the creative decisions on their specific kits, but they ended up sharing quite a few supplies and having designated jobs. I hadn’t designed this as a teamwork lesson, but I thought it was a bonus takeaway from the projects and a testament to just how cool the sets are that the kids wanted to be involved in putting them both together.
Crafting together lets kids be kids
These are scary times, and I know all you mamas out there are trying your best to help your kiddos cope with the new restrictions and fears that we all are experiencing. At this point, I’m looking for any way at all to eliminate some of those fears and worries, and I am so thankful I had some fun stashed away from Creativity for Kids.
As with many moms across the world, I’m now a brand new homeschooling mama. And, while I relish this time with my kids, there’s also a lot of stress involved in getting up to speed with homeschooling while working from home for an income. I truly hope the kids don’t feel the stress of that themselves, which is why I’ve been trying to infuse as much fun into our daily routine as possible. For us, the ultimate fun is crafting together, and that has never been more true than now.
Garden and de-stress
There’s something relaxing and de-stressing about creating together, and these gardening fun with Faber-Castell kits were the perfect introduction into homeschooling as a family. While we won’t be able to do a new art or STEM kit every single week since it looks like we’re going to be out of school for quite some time, I did start with these two projects for a reason. Each of these kits comes with extra seeds for growing even more in the planter, which I love because that means we can plant more seeds as the old ones die off. This gives us another opportunity to see a more mature garden as the weeks go on and have a project we can build on together, which I think is a really cool addition by Faber-Castell. 
Honestly, that’s part of the reason I’m so brand loyal to them. Their kits aren’t just a cute craft that you do for a few minutes and then keep for a week before tossing – they really put a lot of thought into their kits and make them as user-friendly as possible. As a mom looking for any help I can get in the homeschooling department, these kits were one of our biggest wins this week. 
Creativity for Kids gardening kits for every homeschooler
Check out Faber-Castell for kits for every kid, or parent. They have the best art and science kits that cover the broadest range of interests, and you are basically guaranteed to find a few dozen kits your kiddos would love. And, not only does Faber-Castell have the newest must-haves, they also have awesome art supplies and craft kits covered from preschool all the way through to the professional artist.
You can find even more STEM projects on the Creativity for Kids site and I know I’m going to be picking up a few more Faber-Castell art and gardening kits as the weeks go on to keep our spirits up. No matter which kit you choose, you’re guaranteed to have a ton of fun – with lots of learning opportunities infused in each box. 
Where to buy
Creativity for Kids kits are available to ship from Amazon, and Faber-Castell’s web site is still able to ship as well. Also, if you know a local toy store that stocks these amazing kits, reach out and see if you can do a curb side pick up. Your local economy will thank you, and you will be grateful you still have toy store after all this blows over. As someone who adores local toy stores, I encourage you to try your local store first.