The Possibilities in Pipecleaners
Tatro encourages at-home creativity with an Arts & Crafts pickup series.
Some say creativity can thrive within parameters, but for children in a world of lockdowns and shut-ins, expressive energy can eventually run out of places to go. Parents––especially those spending more time at home lately––know this, and are currently bracing themselves for a summer without day camps and restrictions on usual summer play.
Thankfully, we’ve got our local toymakers to the rescue. On May 30, Will Barrios of Tatro Toy Company will launch his Arts and Crafts Pickup Series, which will run every other Saturday through July 25. Staged at local businesses around Baton Rouge, the events will offer arts and crafts bags bursting with “totally random fun stuff,” as Barrios put it, including things like construction paper, card stock, fabrics, beads, chalk, pipe cleaners, and more provided by donations from local nonprofits and sponsorships.
“We asked parents what we could do to help them best keep their kids engaged right now,” said Barrios. “They said this is it. The variety in the bags allows for kids to do a different activity every single day for a week or two. That’s what’s important, keeping things fresh, keeping things new.”
Tatro, which celebrated its one-year anniversary in May, has always proclaimed a mission of “expression through imagination,” giving kids the tools to choose their own creative adventures and innovations. “We like to encourage a child to pursue how they are seeing the world, to create how they want,” said Barrios. “I personally believe that through open-ended play like this, kids discover who they are.”
The first June Arts and Crafts Pickup will take place from 2 pm–4 pm on the 13th at a to-be-determined location. Reserve your arts and crafts bags at tatrotoy.com/summer for $5 a bag or a $20 summer pass, which gets you a bag on each of the five pickup dates through the end of July.