Alex Little Hands, Good Time Crafts

()This is my third Alex craft box.We have the Alex Ready, Set, School Activity Box, Alex Little Hands Seriesas well as one of their other craft boxes.I love how they're very complete--glue sticks and everything you need included.They are overpriced, however--but are great for grandparents or Moms who want an emergency craft kit (or just don't want to assemble their own supplies.)

This kit comes with three different crafts (not 12...but 12 in total):

*Paper cup monsters

*Paper plate hats

*Paper plate animals

Each craft has enough for four kids (or for your child to do it four times).Each craft has its supplies in its own plastic bag--which is nice.There are three different direction sheets--and they're designed for non-readers.They'll show, for example, a red cup...and then show what goes on the red cup.Then, the punch outs for the red cup will also be labeled with a red cup.Really well thought out.

I think if you're doing preschool at home or just want to add some art enrichment to your day, it's nice to have.If you think of it as one craft per week--it's a little more than $1.00/week/kid.Not too bad.I'll add that my 4, 6, and 8 year olds all enjoyed the crafts--they're not just for preschoolers.You'll also end up with left-over paper shreds which can be used for other crafts.

I'm going to send another one of these craft kits to my Mom's house for when we visit at Christmas.It's so complete--that it's worth it.

Now, that I'm on my fourth child, I've slowly established craft supplies.For my four year old, I like to assign a certain craft to each day...so Monday is play dough (homemade...just Google a recipe, so easy!), Tuesday is painting, Wednesday is crafts (either the Kumon books or Alex kits), Thursday is drawing, and Friday is free.

One great easy craft is to just buy some pipe cleaners and bugle beads...and let a child string them.The pipe cleaner is much easier to string things on.Homemade play dough is great.It's easy (I buy a bag of the cheapest flour for it)...and giving that to kids along with cookie cutters, rolling pins, etc. can keep them busy for hours. (There are cooked/non=-cooked recipes everywhere.)Kids also like to collect things outside and then make collages. Let them paint paper towel and toilet paper tubes before you recycle them.Clear contact-paper is great for having them stick things to.There are tons of craft-y blogs out there for ideas as well.I also love all of Maryann Kohl's books.We still use First Art : Art Experiences for Toddlers and Twos and my older kids love the projects!Have fun!Remember, messes are not that tough to clean up...and usually kids love to help.

I bought this craft kit for my son who is 4 years old. I was excited as the crafts looked really easy to make but visually exciting. My disappointment came after trying unsuccessfully to make the pieces stick together. We started with the cup monsters which did eventually stick with the glue stick provided and a lot of effort (by me my son wouldn't have been able to make it stick down). However, the next craft we tried was the fish hat which was impossible to make the way they suggest in the instructions. The two paper plates that are supposed to stay together with stickers will not. Luckily I had a staple gun handy or I might have had a very unhappy little boy on my hands. We pressed on with the hat and the stickers still refused to stay down and the feathers kept coming off. They also omit to tell you how to attach the pipe cleaners to the top of the hat. Staple gun came in handy for that too.

Alex Little Hands usually make exceptionally high quality products, but they need to go back to the drawing board on this one.

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This summer's heat wave has inspired my daughter and I to do a lot of arts and crafts. I got this box because my daughter loves owls and there's a paper plate owl to construct. But the paper cup crafts are a bit tricky to glue and the hats aren't really of any interest for my little one. She did love making the owl and other paper plate animals so we had fun but this wansn't our favorite Alex kit.

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()My six year old loved the busy box.We quickly found out that the glue stick was not doing the sticking of some of the crafts.She uses scotch tape often, so it was not a problem for her to use tape to put the items together.She loved the paper plate masks most of all.It is nice to have all ths upplies ready to go.We have many Alex items and enjoy them very much.

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()I have purchased other Alex Little Hands crafts over the past year for my children (my son is almost 5 and my daughter is almost 2).We've really enjoyed them, so when I saw this I ordered it.

When it came, my son instantly wanted to make a paper cup monster.It's a cute concept, but the glue provided (as mentioned by other reviewers) is pretty much worthless.My little boy got frustrated when things didn't stick, and he'd have to use more glue and hold it for a while to get the pieces to stay.This doesn't work well with impatient, small children, so make sure to have your own glue handy.

My daughter wanted to make a fish hat with Daddy, and that worked out okay, but again we had issues with the glue, and the stickers just weren't strong enough to hold it together.The hat turned out really cute and my daughter loved it once my husband got out some other glue to work with.

Basically this kit is comprised of colored paper cups and colored paper plates with some round stickers, some light weight poster board pieces for arms and other features, and other pieces for decorating.It also comes with a glue stick, which I would immediately replace.It would be pretty easy to make these items yourself, and probably for less money.This kit seems pretty expensive for what you actually get, although it does have projects that my 2 year old and 5 year old really enjoyed.

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