Why ARE doing crafts with dcks so important to most parents? The parents take them home, they very seldom pget put in a place of important. They get forgotten or thrown away IF they ever make it home to begin with.
I'm simply curious...maybe art is being called crafts and I'm the one confused? Do you consider what you do with the dcks more self-directed art or do you do mostly crafts?

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I have no idea why it's so important - maybe so they can "see" that we're doing something with their kids?

I follow Bev Bos principles and do 75% self directed/open ended art. I only do crafts 25% of the time & that's for special holidays.

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Why do they seem important to parents? Because they are so cute! It gives them something to talk about with their children. I think this is a big one. They can connect with their little ones with an instant topic. My parents save a lot of what we do. One mom has a wall that she posts each theme on and takes a pic of dd in front of it! One uses them for grandparents gifts. One of my little guys that I have been watching for years got a new bathroom added to their house and there is artwork from my house that he did several years ago framed in there because it matched the decor!
I do both! I feel their is a place for both in my home. Sometimes it is just messy play and several times a week it is working toward something. My kids like making "something". They ask what are we going to make today. They like paint, play doh etc but still want to make something. They have imput on what we are going to make and how. We discuss what we could do and could use to do things. They wanted to sprinkle the sand and glitter over the sea horses because in the book they looked like that. (rough). They enjoyed mixing the paint. I will get up final pics of the sea horses later.
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Agreed. It gives the parents a connection to the child's day ...something they can easily say, "Hey, did you make this today? Can you tell me about it?" One of my DCM's works in speech/language at hospital, and she tells me every time the kids bring home a project (whether it was an actual "craft" we put together or just a painting that was done... they bring something home about 3 days a week), how much she appreciates it, and how great it is for helping with language development.

My projects are related to whatever book or theme we are reading/talking about. So most of the time a conversation about the project leads into more talking about the theme, or what book we read, or what song we sang, or what game we played.

I loved when my daughter would bring home projects from daycare when she went ... it added such fun, free, and colorful decorations to the kitchen

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I've been really lucky over the years. My parents aren't at all concerned with tangible crafts but ARE concerned about actual activities the kids get to do.

I can live with that as I prefer activities and hands on experiences that leave a lasting impact verses a craft item.

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I stopped sending the crafts/artwork home, instead I hang them on the kitchen craft display wall with my own kids artwork. Twice a year I gather up each child's art and put it in a folder to go home, and some still don't even make it to the car.
I just got sick to death of seeing the crafts come back the next day still in the daybag, or left in my hall way, or crushed in my driveway.
So now they stay here and I don't have to deal with a sobbing child holding the remenants of his hard work after finding them crumpled in the bag.

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I only do craft type things a few times a year. The rest is open ended art. Some goes home, some in the child's folder, and some on the wall. I think crafts are cute but personally I don't like doing them and thats what happens most of the time, I'm the one that ends up doing most of it

I've only had a few parents here and there that really want crafty things but I tell everyone upfront how I do things so there's no misunderstandings when Johnny isn't bringing home a daily craft

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I just tell the parents its about the process, not the product...

THey stop asking.....

I take a ton of pictures of the activities that we do here, so they can see what their child is doing while here.....

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