Crunch Art Review
Parents, I see the look on your faces when I show up to your house or your child comes home from school and they are covered from head to toe in what ever sticky art project they completed. Sometimes, we all just need a way to help kid’s expand their creative minds, minus the mess. Well, guess what, Crunch Art by Little Kids, Inc. is a completely mess free craft project that is great to develop not only imagination and design, but is great to improve hand strength in the little guys. It’s a very easy project and is great when you only have a short amount of time to create a project or if you are looking for something to keep the kids busy that might only require minimal supervision and help to get started.
In the Mega pack I reviewed were a few foam shapes (guitar, peace sign, butterfly, moon and a star), as well as different colored fabric squares. First the child chooses a foam shape. Next they place it on top of the yellow crunch art foam block. Using the blue, Crunch Art tool, they simply push the colored fabric square where ever they desire, into the foam block. This is not an easy activity for kid’s with weaker hands, and it’s great as an alternative to help develop the smaller muscles of the hand in a fun way. Want to put your fabric square in a different location? No problem, just pull it out and replace the same fabric square in a different location. The only downfall is that there was only one tool in the pack, so if you have more than one child, they would have to share the tool or get creative with designing their picture while the other person crunches away. It’s very
cost effective, starting with some smaller sets at $5.99, this set retails at $10.99. It’s recommended for ages 4 and up.
Want an even better way to help your children develop a more mature pencil grasp, place the yellow crunch art foam block resting on an 2 inch three ring binder turned sideways. A slanted surface helps the fingers remain in a better position, that promotes a more mature grasp pattern needed for endurance writing. Encourage your children to delicately hold the tool with their fingertips, rather than having a death grip and pounding away. For kid’s that have difficulty with planning, let them trace the outer foam shapes onto a piece of paper and have them pre-draw their design on a piece of paper and then use it as a guide to finish the plan to completion.
Little Kids Inc provided crunch art free to facilitate a review. The opinions expressed are my own.