The majority of students nowadays usually need to complete a large number of homework and assignments after school. In addition to frequent tests and examinations, there is also a tight schedule for tuition classes after school and extracurricular activities. During the long summer vacation, why not let your children take a slower pace and expose them to creative handicrafts, thus opening up room for their creativity?

Seedling, an importer located in Sheung Wan, specialises in creative handicraft packs. Each pack conveniently comes with a complete set of handicraft-making materials. All products are sourced from New Zealand. The special characteristic of the products is that children may design, all by themselves, their own unique handicrafts according to their favourite colours and patterns. The most important thing is that their ingenious and unique designs could become a colourful toy, jewellery, personal effects or even a gift item, allowing children to experience the fun of becoming a designer or an artist, as well as to experience a sense of success.

Through various creative activities, relevant handicrafts are intended to provide opportunities to encourage children to explore and apply their creativity potential by using their own imagination and what they learn during the game with regard to all kinds of colours and patterns such that children have free rein to develop their design ideas. Seedling’s executives, Ellen and Karen, said that the company’s handicrafts won the “Best Toy Award” and “Best Creative Fun” award in 2012 and 2013 in the United States.  Not only can the handicraft products allow children to develop their creativity, but there is also an added benefit of training their soft skills such as endurance and concentration.

Ellen said, “As information technology continues to develop and progress, it is more important to nurture children’s creative thinking than to pursue knowledge.  A lot of information and knowledge can be obtained any time by going online. However, people can really stand out and differentiate themselves from others if they possess their own artistic talents, a skill that is not easily substituted in the technology era. Knowledge is a common barcode which we all can obtain from the Internet. However, as the saying goes, “Creative makes human different”.  Therefore, parents need not over-stress themselves about their children’s pursuit of knowledge because information that their children do not understand today can be revisited on the Internet tomorrow. Furthermore, a “spoon-feeding” education system also does not allow much time for children to learn and develop creativity.   ”

Seedling handicrafts can generally be categorised into four series, which include Creative Scientist, Young Artist, Vogue Designer, and Playful Mimic. Children can engage in different handicrafts according to their own liking. To experience how scientists mix substances in laboratories, children may try making soap or kaleidoscope and see how the final product looks like. Girls are more keen on beauty. Parents with daughters may wish to let their girls design a handbag, a princess tiara or colours and patterns for a dress etc. The completed product, which will give the girls a great sense of satisfaction, can become their own collection or be given to a friend as a gift. As for playful boys who usually love to mimic funny looks and appearances, why not let your boys design a Superman transfiguration cloak or a doctor’s outfit etc., which would be really fun. All handicraft-making materials are in full compliance with safety standards for children toys such as EN71, ASTM F-963, and CPSIA.

If you would like to have specially trained facilitators to guide your children in making and effectively completing their handicrafts, why not join the workshops organised by Seedling? Generally, there are 4 – 10 children in a 

class. The duration of each class is one hour and the cost is approximately $350 (excluding handicraft-making materials). Parents can also participate at the same time. This is one of the great choices for family activities during summer vacations and weekends. Handicraft packs are available in Seedling Specialty Stores, PageOne, Bookazine and Dymock’s.