Kids art crafts train your children to use their hands. Even if they prefer to use an embroidery and sewing machine in later life, it is important for them to learn how to sew with a needle and thread when they are still very young.

Safety Considerations

Wait until your child is old enough to understand your instructions. Explain that if he gets an itchy nose or eyelid he must drop the needle before scratching the itch. Explain that the scissors must never come near his face (or his brothers or sisters or the pet dog).

Explain that he is a big boy and mustn't cry when he pricks his finger. I suggest that his first attempts at arts and crafts should involve sewing two sheets of paper together, or embroidering some brown paper. It's easier to handle than a heavy embroidery frame, and doesn't need as much manual dexterity to spread the material enough to see where the needle goes next.

You will use a needle all your life

When I was a scientific research assistant, one of the researchers had to get me to sew together all the head-harnesses that he needed for his research. He explained to me that they had servants at home to do all the work, so he never learned to do anything for himself. I was filled with contempt for him, but now I realize that it wasn't his fault. His parents should have shown him at least a basic sewing stitch.

Perhaps your son will never make up any beautiful embroidery patterns for the rest of his life, or prefer an embroidery sewing machine or take any more interest in hobbies crafts. But what would he do in the following circumstances?

• He wants to make a mosquito net tent to cover the cabbages in his garden.
• A button pops off his trousers just before a party.
• He wants to dig broken glass out of his foot.
• He is camping and the legs of his trousers split apart as he straddles a tree trunk.
• He is camping with a friend - two days walk from civilization - when his friend gets wounded. He's been to first aid classes - where they taught him that first aid is not what a doctor would do, but only what you do while waiting for the ambulance. But he would have to walk two days to call an ambulance and his friend is bleeding to death. Compression pads aren't going to do the trick.

Use of sewing craft will stop the bleeding permanently, but could cause infection. He will die from loss of blood if not sewn up and he might not die of infection. Can he sew up his friend with ordinary needle and thread, or was his introduction to kids art crafts neglected because that was something that was left to the servants to do?