"And, don't forget the scissors!"

When the pandemic struck in the early Spring of 2020 and everyone else was gathering toilet paper and bottled water, my mom’s first instinct was to force my sister and me into the car and drive straight to the craft store. “There’s no way, I am spending the foreseeable future trapped in the house with the two of you and no crafts,” she lectured as we roamed the aisles throwing everything from painting canvasses to pony beads into a shopping cart. As we made our way to the check out, she called out, “And, don’t forget the scissors!”

As the world closed in and school became “virtually” nonexistent, I became more and more grateful for all those crafting supplies. With no visitors coming to the house anytime soon, our family guest room became crafting central and our “craft closet” overflowed everywhere.

We held Bob Ross painting contests with friends over Zoom, following along with his old shows and voting to see who made the best replica of his work.

We put our scissors to good use cutting out LOTS of paper crafts including an Indiana Jones-style temple as well as an Egyptian one. The family also turned to at home community service putting our scissors to good work by cutting paracord to make bracelets for those serving in the military.

As the pandemic kept going and going and going and fall approached, it became clear my Freshman year of high school was going to take place at the kitchen table. It got me thinking: how many other kids across America are trapped at home learning on a screen and what could I do about it. I decided it was time to combine two of my favorite things, history and crafts, to help others and I founded MythologyCrafts.com.

MythologyCrafts.com is a website and YouTube Channel dedicated to helping other kids learn about history and culture through crafts, cooking and games. Crafting helped me and my family get through the boredom and loneliness of the Covid shutdown and I thought maybe it could help other kids too. All the projects are designed for kids from kindergarten to 5th grade and explain some element of history or culture through crafts.

My first two crafts were all about scissors: very simple, cutout papercrafts—a Spartan Hoplite Helmet and a Roman Laurel Wreath. Having high quality scissors, like Fiskars is a must for many of the projects at MythologyCrafts.com. “And, don’t forget the scissors,” is something I find myself repeating often. As I created more projects, I branched out to cooking projects like Viking Mead or Roman Saturnalia cookies but crafting remains an important element of my work. Sitting in the background of quite a few supply photos is a good old pair of scissors.

The Staff Of Gods is my favorite craft I have designed so far. With the Staff of the Gods, kids make a scepter with interchangeable ornamental toppers representing the big three Greco-Roman Gods. It features the lightening bolt of Zeus, the horn-like bi-dent of Hades and the classic trident of Poseidon. I provide cutout templates for all three ornamental headings with step-by-step instructions and teach children about the ancient world all at the same time.

This craft not only teaches kids about mythology and the ancient world, but it also becomes a toy to play with when they have finished making it. The interchangeable parts are my favorite aspect of the craft because they allow kids to role play as any of the three gods and have fun exploring the world of history and mythology on their own terms. While making this craft, my younger sister even branched out and created a staff for the Goddess of Spring, Persephone.

With the world reopening, I am hoping to make MythologyCrafts.com a non-profit to offer free, in-person, history crafting lessons to at-risk kids in my local community. You can bet we will need a lot of scissors. Kids need hands-on, creative, stimulating ways to reignite a passion for learning in a post-virtual world. We are tired of computer screens and lectures and we need creative engaging ways to reconnect with each other and with education. I want to recruit high schools kids to teach these crafts and history lessons to younger students using creativity and fun.

Crafting is a great way to teach history and mythology because all of those things are about the act of creating. Humans create myths to understand the world around them, people create history through their choices and actions and crafting is the act of creating a personal form of art. I enjoy crafting and want to encourage other young people to learn through creating. It does not matter how perfect your craft my appear, it is about creating something and sharing your vision of the world.

Learning to cut and color are often some of the earliest basic motor skills kids are taught in school and that is why so many of my crafts focus on cutting and coloring for younger kids. Scissors are a gateway to crafting and self-expression for young people. While they are a simple tool, they are vital to the creative process. So the next time you are roaming the aisles of the craft store, remember my mom’s words: “And, don’t forget the scissors.”