One of the best hobbies you can encourage your children to have is photography and you can start them as young as five years old. And no, you don’t need to get them digital cameras; all you need is to give them a great but functional toy camera.
One great choice, a favourite for moms, is the Chicco toy camera. It looks like a toy but it is sturdy and it can take great pictures. You need to buy film for it but that is okay. Once the kids see the results of their photography it makes them focused on the activity.
If you cannot find Chicco, then any disposable camera would do just as well, but it can disappoint. No child wants to dispose of their camera if they see how great their results will be. You can continue buying the disposable ones but eventually the kids will not appreciate it. They like consistency and only a great hobby with a good camera could do that.
If the kids are older then you can think about giving them digital camera to use. At least this way it is expensive on the first go but after that the cost is negligible. What is best is images can be downloaded and burned. So the kids can look at their pictures on the TV monitor at their leisure and when they burn it into DVDs then they can just delete the images from the camera and the memory card and start all over again.
Will this hobby be beneficial to kids? Of course it will. This type of hobby will encourage them to take control of their gross motor skills, their eye-hand coordination and their ability to appreciate beauty where it is not evident. Most of all, they get to express themselves in a positive way.
