How to Involve Kids in Making a Coat of Arms

A family coat of arms represents a family line and what’s important to them. Things like values, traits, achievements, and experiences.

Making your own coat of arms can be fun and beneficial for kids, as knowing about their heritage gives children a sense of belonging and their place in the world.

If you’re a parent who wants a hands-on, fun project that blends storytelling, art, and history, making family crests together is an activity that the whole family can enjoy!

Benefits of Making a Family Crest For Kids:

Family crests are like team jerseys. They show who you are and what matters to you. But instead of numbers, you make use of symbols, colors, patterns, and maybe a unicorn or two! 

Family crests can be powerful teaching tools. They can benefit children in many ways: 

• Sense of belonging: Discover more about their identity and their family through family history

• Creative expression: Designing a family crest taps into their imaginative and artistic side

• Conversation starter: Opens up discussions on family story, cultures, traditions, and awesome family tales.

• Multidisciplinary learning: They can explore different subjects like storytelling, mythology (griffins and unicorns), geography through family roots, and even a mini lesson on colors, patterns, and shapes.
  
  

Step-by-Step Guide to Making a Family Crest with Your Kids

1. Gather Your Materials

Depending on your child’s interests and age, you can choose traditional or digital tools:

• Crayons, colored pencils, markers

• Paint, glue, scissors

• Felt, glitter, craft supplies

• Printable Family Crest templates or worksheets

• Basic digital design tools like Canva 
  
  

2. Explain the Concept of Family Crests in Kid-Friendly Terms

You can show your kids a few simple examples of family crests or coats of arms. If you have an existing family crest, you can also describe it as a mini storybook packed with symbols that say something about the family’s achievements, values, and even funny inside jokes.

To make things more fun for them, cite examples like the Hogwarts house crests or superhero emblems. This makes the idea of creating a crest exciting and relatable!

Tip: Try using your family tree as an illustration while sharing your family history!

3. Start a Family Brainstorm Session

Now that they already have an idea of what a family crest is, you can go ahead and facilitate a brainstorming session. Sit together in a circle and ask questions to help them think of symbols that connect to your family’s traits.

Questions like:

• What’s something our family loves to do together?

• What’s one word that can describe our family?

• What is everyone’s favorite animal, color, or food?

• What’s a special (or funny) memory with your siblings, parents, grandparents?

List the answers to these questions and write all ideas down, even the silliest ones!

This is also a good time to talk about family traditions, funny inside jokes, and frequent family sayings. 

4. Design the Crest Together

Making a family crest involves choosing colors, shapes, symbols, and animals, including the mythical ones! 

It’s an engaging activity to do with kids because everyone is given the room for creativity.
Got artistic kids? Get their opinion on color combinations. Got kids who are big on poetry? Have them list ideas for the family motto. And the little ones? They can choose their favorite animal or toy (a teddy bear is just as valid as a lion!). 

Choose symbols and colors

The family can choose what symbols and colors they’d like to add to their family crest. But they can also refer to this list to make choosing symbols easier!

Coat of arms elements you can include

• Shield (the main ‘canvas’ of the crest)

• Plants or flowers

• Letters or initials from your family name 
  
  

5. Add a motto

Family mottos are like a catchphrase. They can be:

• Inspiring: “Kindness is our superpower.”

• Simple: “Together always.”

• Silly: “Coffee, cuddles, chaos.”  

When writing them, let your kids pick their favorite writing style! It can be cursive, bubble font, or block letters, even calligraphy. This adds a personal touch to the motto and makes the project feel even more theirs. Plus, it’s a subtle way to sneak in some handwriting practice! 

Make It a Family Event

You can also turn your project into a weekend family highlight:

• Host a “Crest-making day” and serve yummy snacks

• Include younger kids in the extended family and make it a friendly competition

• Offer fun rewards like “no chores for a day” or cool prize items to add motivation
  

Make sure the environment feels relaxed, fun, and joyful!

Display The Design Proudly

When you’re done with your design, you can display your final output as home decor! Here are some ways you can display your family crest:

• Frame it and hang it by your front door, in your living room, or hallway

• Stick it on a magnet and put it on the fridge 

• Make a digital version (if you made a physical one) by scanning it. You can add it into your invitation cards!

• Attach it to your family photo album or your kids’ scrapbook
  
  

Pro Tips for a Smooth Sailing Art Project

Craft time with kids can go from wholesome to chaotic in 2 seconds. Here are some smart ways to keep the fun on track:

• Use visual examples: Avoid the “What are we doing again?” loop by showing them cool crest examples. Keep in mind that kids are very receptive to vibrant colors and shapes!

• Give them a symbol menu - You can gather symbol ideas from the list you made during the brainstorming session or use this list as a guide.

• Tell stories along the way - Talk about their ancestors’ unique quirks and inspiring stories to keep them engaged throughout the project. 

• Sneak in the learning whenever you can - For example, if you’re showing your family roots, pull out a map. Or, when choosing colors, decode what each of them means (spoiler: blue = loyalty, not just Elsa from Frozen).
  
  

A Fun-Filled Family Activity 

When you’re finally happy with your newly crafted family crest, ask your kids to describe the image they made. It will surely melt your heart (or not; kids say funny things all the time). For all you know, they could say, “I drew this image because… I don’t know.” And that’s okay! It even makes the moment more endearing. 

Making a family crest is a super simple project, and involving your kids can be a great way to bond as a family. It’s one of the simplest ways to pass on stories disguised as creative play!