Beyond the Pipe Cleaner: 5 Mother's Day Gift-Making Activities for Kids

Yes, your child will most likely come home from school with a Mother's Day gift. Perhaps a ziti collage or a bouquet of paper flowers suspended on pipe cleaners. And you will ooh and ah. And appropriately so. But why leave all the fun to school when you could celebrate Mother's Day as a family, making Mother's Day crafts together (you for your own mom, them for theirs) or Moms could even send dads off with kids to make Mother's Day gifts for a few hours and that would almost be gift enough.

Many kid venues offer Mother's Day gift-making workshops where kids can glue tissue paper flowers together, but we've gathered some unique events where kids of all ages can step the Mother's Day gift-making up a notch, even if Dad has to pitch in a bit.

Spacecraft, the Williamsburg craft spot, is offering a free Recycled Mothers Day craft event tonight, April 30th from 6:30-8:30pm. Bring in your boring T-Shirts and cloth tote bags and learn simple techniques to recycle them into gifts mom will love. Or make bookmarks and cards from the recycling bin. The workshop is free and open to crafters of all ages and skill levels. More details here.

Use wire, beads, and silk flowers to turn branches into beautiful gifts for mom at Wave Hill's weekly family art project. Plus spending Mother's Day weekend on the Bronx's beautiful grounds of Wave HIll, strolling the gardens and working on a craft together with the kids is really a present in and of itself. Saturday, May 9, 1-4pm. Free with admission. Event details here.

Make is the paint-your-own-pottery studio formerly known as Our Name is Mud with studios on the Upper West and Upper East Sides, plus a brand new studio right inside FAO Schwarz! They provide pre-formed pottery and all the supplies and you get to decorate them. Make a tea set for mom with a cup painted by each family member? Sounds lovely. Remember pottery will be left behind to be fired in the kilns and must be picked up two days later. Cost is $12 studio fee plus the cost of the pottery, $3-$85 per piece. See website for locations and hours.

On Saturday, May 9th at 2pm, the Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum in the Bronx hosts a Mother's Day Tea and Flower Workshop. Enjoy tea in the beautiful L'Orangerie and afterward make a traditional Victorian tussie mussie, which is a small bouquet arrangement of flowers. Ages 6 and up. $25 per person. And only 24 spots, total so register right away at 718 885-1461 if interested. Event details here.

The Affordable Art Fair New York is in Midtown May 7th through 10th and this year there will be children's programming at the event. On Mother's Day, parents can enjoy the art fair while children aged 3-12 get to work at the Children's Art Studio in in programs such as Sculptural Roses for Mom or Me, Myself and I/Pop Art Prints where children create an artful homage to their mother. General Admission $20. Children under 12 free. Moms get in free on Sunday, May 10 when accompanied by kids. See the details here.