One of the best ways to keep your kids busy during the summer months is to do arts and crafts projects with them. If you’re not good at coming up with ideas from scratch and you have girls in the 8-12 bracket, I’d highly recommend taking a look at the American Girls craft kits.
American Girl is best known as a doll manufacturer, but they also make a number of activity kits for young girls to enjoy, covering pretty much any type of craft project you could imagine.
I was very impressed with how nice the American Girl super scrapbook kit was. I’ve been an avid scrapbooker since 2002 and have written about scrapbooking for several different online publications. This album kit is pretty much everything I’d pick out if I was going to assemble a scrapbook gift for one of my nieces, right down to the pretty floral patterned papers and the stick on sparkly rhinestones.
It gives you enough supplies to make a complete book without becoming overwhelmed by too many options. All your daughter would need to finish the scrapbook is her photos, scissors, some glue or tape, and a black pen for journaling. She could add more stickers or embellishments beyond what’s included in the kit if you have some items in your own supply stash that you want to get rid of, but it’s certainly not necessary.
As a mom, I think scrapbooking is a great hobby because it encourages kids to develop their writing skills. If your daughter struggles in this area, the stickers in the kit have prompts like “One Thing My Family Loves to Do Together” or “3 Things That Make My Friends and I Laugh.” Even though I’m a freelance writer and have a degree in journalism, I admit I have some writing prompt embellishments like these in my own scrapbook supply stash!
The American Girl album is also very sturdy. When done properly, it’s definitely a book a young girl could display at her high school graduation or show to her own children someday.
Disclaimer: A sample of the American Girl Crafts super scrapbook kit was provided for the purpose of preparing this review.
Photo credit: American Girl Crafts
