Inexpensive crafts with kids: Origami

My eldest child has been going to school in Japan for a little while now, and one of the things she has particularly enjoyed are the papercrafts they do in the classroom. Often, she'll bring home little origami creations that she's made with the help of the teachers, and the thing that we really enjoy about this kind of craft is that it's cheap, easy, and virtually mess free to do at home as well. All it's really going to cost you is the 100 yen for paper that you can find at just about every 100 yen store. Our local Daiso had plenty of different paper options on the shelves, including patterned and metallic finish paper if you want to go all-out fancy.

There are also hard plastic cases you can buy at Daiso to store the paper too, but that's really an optional extra and not a necessity by any means. We just find it easier to have one to keep everything somewhat corralled! 

A lot of the time, the origami paper packets have leaflets inside that give you step by step instructions on how to make different things (animals are probably our daughter's favorite right now!) but one of the other great things about origami is that there are so many different video tutorials on YouTube. For me personally, I like the video tutorials better because I'm able to watch someone else doing it rather than just reading instructions off a page...plus, I can pause it or replay sections whenever I need to! 

The start of a giraffe coming to life...

One of the things I really enjoy about origami (aside from the inexpensive price point!) is the fact that you can tailor it to just about any skill level. My daughter is only three and can already make some basic origami, but even enjoys watching and helping my husband or I make more intricate creations. It's challenging for us as adults too, which is probably half the fun!