Teaching Simple Origami Projects To Your Kids

Paper was introduced and developed in China sometime around 100 A.D. It is also believed that the art of simple origami was practiced by, and brought to Japan by Buddhist monks sometime around 600 A.D. As there is not much history written for that particular period and region, this is a purely hypothetical assumption.

Regardless of the exact beginnings of origami, not many will argue that the Japanese brought simple origami to the higher level of art that it has become. The phrase or word origami is Japanese and is derived from a combination of two words. The first word "oru" which translates to English as "to fold" and the second word "kami" is the Japanese word for "paper.

Although we may not associate it with origami, most of us will remember making simple origami objects when we were kids. My first experience came in grammar school when I saw a paper airplane come sailing through the air from the back of the classroom. It wasn't long before every kid in class knew how to build one of those long sleek simple origami planes from a sheet of notebook paper.

Like everything else in life, one thing leads to another. It wasn't long before we all learned how to create more interesting types of paper airplanes along with other simple origami objects, like boats, animals and many other miscellaneous shapes.

Once you start to delve into the world of origami, you will be amazed at how many ways there are to fold paper. There is actually a "language" of folds associated with this intricate craft which helps simplify the teaching of origami to others. Some of the more familiar and most often used fold terms are "valley fold" and " mountain fold" and are quite commonplace in most origami projects, along with specific fold patterns like "bird base", "square base" and others. These are just the basic beginnings for simple origami, and the possibilities and shapes that can be created are almost endless.

Kids love origami. It is an incredible tool that helps bring out the creative side in all kids. Simple origami projects help us as parents to teach our children patience and also show our children how to complete projects. It is really rewarding to see the satisfaction expressed when our children have completed a simple origami project on their own. Learning origami is a great pastime that really helps our kids to think and work with their hands at the same time.

There are many publications and instructional books available about teaching and learning origami. Although working with the diagrams in books is a good way to start with origami, I have also I found that viewing an online video to be a good tool and easy to follow, especially for your first origami projects. A video that shows someone folding and also explaining the steps as they go is a lot easier to understand than trying to work with just written text on a page. It's a much more simple process to watch someone doing it properly, and then be able to pause the instructional video as needed, do a few folds and then resume again.

Teaching your kids how to create simple origami shapes and animals is a wonderful way to acquaint yourself with a very useful and creative pastime for you and your kids. As parents, origami is a great stress reliever and a good bonding activity for us and our children.

Visit the Money Origami website where you can download free instructions and free videos of simple origami projects, and also some not-so-easy projects. Whatever your choice, you will find that practicing the art simple origami with your children to be quite the fulfilling pastime.