Anyone else struggling to get their kids to do something for longer than five minutes right now? If you’re doing the juggle or indeed just need 10 minutes of ‘me time’ take a look at this post about what’s keeping our kids distracted the longest!

Experts at DIYS.com were intrigued to find out which crafts will keep your child distracted the longest. In order to do so, 1,635 parents were sent a range of popular craft activities, and were asked to time and record the noise level of their child whilst they were involved in each craft.

The noise level reaching above 60 decibels (equivalent to an average conversation noise level) is an indicator that the child is no longer engrossed in the activity and the timer was stopped.*

The 10 Crafts that Keep Your Child Distracted For Longest:

Experts at DIYS.com can reveal the crafts that will keep your child distracted for an average of 20 minutes, in which time the child’s noise level remains below 60 decibels.

Rank	Craft	Average time before decibels reached 60+ (mins)
1	Paper weaving	34
2	Making slime	33
3	Origami	31
4	Jewellery making	30
5	Painting rocks	29
6	Coloured sand bottles	27
7	Mosaic art	26
8	Macaroni  frames	26
9	Paper mâché	25
10	Finger sewing	23

Paper weaving stands as the craft that will keep your child distracted the longest. Whilst engaged in this activity, the noise level recorded remained under 60 decibels for an average of 34 minutes. Paper weaving is highly engaging for your child and great for building their motor skills.

Following closely behind is making slime, a new phenomenon that is a lot less messy than it sounds! This fun and creative craft engages all your child’s senses, keeping them quiet for an average of 33 minutes.

Ranking third is origami a highly intricate craft. Origami is known to enhance spatial skills and memory. Whilst being engaged in origami, the participating children made less than 60 decibels of noise for an average of 31 minutes

Also among the top crafts to keep your child distracted the longest are: jewellery making (30 mins), painting rocks (29 mins) and filling clear bottles with coloured sand (27 mins), respectively ranking fourth, fifth and sixth.

The 10 Crafts that Keep Your Child Distracted For the Shortest Time:

Rank	Craft	Average time before decibels reached 60+ (mins)
1	Printing shapes	8
2	Finger painting	9
3	Scoubidou	10
4	Foam crafts	10
5	Paper chains	11
6	Playdough modelling	12
7	Designing t-shirts	13
8	Straw blowing painting	13
9	Drawing and colouring	14
10	Glitter art	16

In joint third place are scoubidou and foam crafts, with the noise level recorded remaining under 60 decibels for an average of just 10 minutes each.Finger painting follows closely behind, with the average child distracted after 9 minutes of this craft – seemingly not worth the mess!Printing shapes stands as the least distracting craft – with the children’s noise levels reaching 60 decibels within an average of 8 minutes, 26 minutes faster than paper weaving.

The benefits of crafting

Here Stefan Gheorghe at DIYS.com discusses the three main benefits of crafts for your child:

Enhances decision-making skills: Crafts at any level involve a degree of critical thinking and planning. Solving these artistic challenges will improve your child’s ability to problem solve and make independent decisions.

Improves self-esteem: Creating something you’re proud of is an extremely uplifting and motivating feeling. Experiencing this through artistic expression is an amazing way for your child to feel confident in what they think and what they can produce.

Relaxation: Crafts are known to be relaxing as they tap into our imagination, which helps us to detach. Being relaxed is extremely important for a child’s concentration, something even more vital now many children are being schooled from home. Crafts are therefore a great way to break up their home-study schedule and keep them focused throughout the day.