Need Toddler Craft Ideas

I have two little ones 2 and three, and one seven year old. For the little ones, PAT taught me something fun to do that is not messy. get a manilla folder and fill with paper, cut it in half to make two little books. let your little one help you pick pictures out of magazines and store ads. glue them with stick glue(the least messy) and then write the name of the picture on the same page with it. they learn letter and word recognition. and its less messy than finger paints and playdough..lol.

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Just an idea that you can do....when I worked in a daycare we use to fingerpaint with chocolate pudding. That way if the child stuck thier fingers in thier mouth it is no big deal. Plus getting messy and watching thier expressions is the best part. I hope you have fun.

~S.

1 mom found this helpful

Okay, first off, mess is part of the learning experiance, for both you and your child. Just make sure that you are prepared for the mess. Place your child in a highchair or booster seat and put garbage bags under this and all around it. (Or get a paint drop, they work great too.) Then, construction paper and finger paints/pudding and paper. Your child will become a big mess, but then you have the opportunity to take pictures of them, and then play more in the bath. :) My daughter hated to finger paint until she realized two things...one, that she could paint herself, and two, that the water in the bath tub turns really pretty colors. :) The mess really is half the fun. With the pictures that you take of your kid you can then develope them and make a collage with them, and have your child help. Another activity, non messy, is get an "Aqua-Doodle." They are basically a mat that you lay out, and the child paints it. The best part is, they only paint with water. After a certain amount of time the picture goes away, and they can do it all over again. Another thing to do with them, not necessarily an arts and crafts sort of thing, is to have a dance party with them. My daughter LOVES it when mommy gets down on her knees and dances. We do everything from the Twist to the Waltz. She eats it up. Just find fun music, and cut loose. If your child can't walk yet then just hold them while you dance. It's great to see your child laughing and giggling while you get rid of some stress. :) Hope some of this helps.

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When my daughter was younger, we signed up with a "book club" called Brighter Vision. Every month, they sent an activity book with stickers, a craft project suitable for her age, and a CD with great kids songs on it. The cost was $14 a month, and worth every penny. The ideas in the activity book were perfect for 1-3 year-olds that are wanting to explore more, but are not ready for the small pieces and mess of what we consider art projects to be.

I am a SAHM of 3 kids, all 4 and younger. My 2 year old son LOVES the crayola color wonder paper, markers and finger paints. It won't color on anything BUT the colorwonder paper. He loves it even more when I sit down and color or paint with him. It's not a lot as far as arts and crafts goes but it's a beginning. My son is destructive and messy with everything so this keeps the disaster to a minimum. Occasionally he thinks the paint is lip gloss and puts it on. Its non toxic and since its not colored and wont color him... I dont freek out about it. He also likes the crayola markers that you can color on the glass with. You have to kinda keep damage control on this but not too bad. THe markers are water based and clean up easily. Chandler loves to show his dad that he drew him a picture on the back door and when the light comes through its pretty! Windex and papertowels is all you need to get rid of it to start a new canvas. Hope this helps

Try familyfun.go.com or familycrafts.about.com for great craft ideas. Also, just resign yourself to a bit of a mess at this age, heh. One of the therapists for my 2-yr-old uses colored foam soap, and lets him paint all over my table with it. It gets my table shiny, and saves me a little work, heehee!
Just remember to have fun, and your son will too! :)

J.

I have just started a yahoo group called: Creative Mommies I have lots of great craft ideas on there. You can also check out Nick jr.com! They have great projects!

I use this website for ideas and templtes for crafts for my kids...

www.dltk-kids.com

They have crafts for holidays and ones for cartoons characters. I love it! :) Let me know if it works for you.

There are some excellent books at the library. My daughter likes the make-shift puzzels we make together using note cards, glue, and magazine pics. We just cut, paste, dry, and cut again. Then we mix them all up and match them up. It is a good activity, plus it is very inexpensive.

This may sound a lil crazy but I put my son in the bathtub and put pudding in it and let him slide around in the tub and the clean up would be easy too. Also I put whipped cream on the table and let him play him in it.

finger painting is good....just put plastic or an old sheet down...thats what my mom always did and it was fun and creative!!!
my mom also made dough and we cut out xmas ornaments with cookie cutters then she baked them then we painted them!!!

All I can say is Play Doh. My 20 month old loves taking legos and smashing them in the play doh. He also cuts circles with easter eggs.

Coloring with big crayons is always fun and water painting. Lay out newspaper underneath and give it a try! Have fun and don't worry about the mess too much!

there are lots of diffrent crafts that you can make just out of your childs hand prints, you can also use them as presents. like for fathers day, grandparents day, valentines day, easter, thanksgiving, christmas, mothers day. one example is to have a t-shirt handy, dip their hands in paint, (or their feet) and let them put their hand prints(or feet prints) on the shirt. then paint their age and name under the hand print (or foot print). it makes a great gift for anyone.
another example is that you could make callages out of their hand prints.
or still another, you can trace their hands and cut them out of construction paper, and put helpful learning tips on them. (kind of like flash cards). this is a good way of teaching them the alphabet, colors, numbers,learning what their hands and feet are called, left from right, the human bones in the hands, (or feet), muscles. etc... you can make wreaths or poinsettas there's a huge list. i hope this helps.

The mess is the best part of the craft. I used to cover my kitchen table with trash bag and even the floor, for easy clean up.

Get buddled up and go on a nature hike to collect sticks, leaves, pine cones and bring them back the house.
I liked using the foam brushes for glueing for the toddlers.
Use heavy construction paper and let him glue the sticks and leaves to the paper.

Have fun!

My 3 year old loves to work with his hands, so we are constantly trying new things. One thing he really enjoys, besides playdough, is playing in a bucket of dried beans. Give him toys and cups, let him scoop and pour, just like a sandbox without all the mess. You can also dot glue onto paper and let him glue some beans, beads, wads of tissue paper, cotton, or whatever else onto the paper.

Another neat activity is to cut out different shapes with construction paper and show your son how to make things with the different shapes: Trains, houses, clowns, flowers, etc. Talk about the shapes at the same time.

It's been a little while since I had a toddler, and I also had a great daycare for my son, but puzzles were always something my son loved to do and they help are good for learning, patience and dexterity. Plus they are usually not to messy! I hope this helps a little, it's not really a craft, but something fun.

I worked in daycare for 2 years as the 2 year old teacher. The kids always loved using childrens scissors and just cutting. I would bring my old magazines from home and just let them cut on the pages...then you dot glue on paper and let them place the pieces on there so they aren't playing in the glue. Just keep in mind, when they are that age you can't always avoid making a mess!!
You can also let them paint with craft sticks to avoid getting it all over their hands.

Crayola has a wonderful new product out called wonder colors. They are finger paints that only mark on the special paper. It is like a petroleum jelly so clean up is easy. My 2 and 3 yr old grandkids love using them.
I also color with them in bools that are geared learning. We color an A and the corressponding Apple, etc. Aly(2) tries the letters and sounds while we color. Izzy(3) is learning to count and his abc's through this.
We also make things with playdough. Yes it can be messy but really is not hard to clean up, provided I keep them at the table with it.
These are just a few of the things I do with the kids. Aly makes a mess with Everything, so I am always looking for things to do to help her learn and have fun with out major clean up. I'm sure others will have other ideas as well.

Hi C.,

Children that old LOVE stickers AND paint, so give him a jubo paint brush and let him dab away with the brush on watercolor paper. Just use one color, so clean-up is easy. Then let it dry or blow dry it with your hair dyer. Once dries, let him stick foam stickers, regular stickers, etc.

My daughter made a beautiful painting and sticker poster, I actually framed it and it now hangs in the downstairs bathroom!

I always use watercolor paper as it is much more absorbant, and doesn't wrinkle up.

Another idea is trace his hand and feet and cut out the shapes. You can get a twig, stick it on paper, and then color the hands and feet and stick them on like a tree. You can also use string or yarn to make a nest and make a cut out bird. This teaches them about nature, so when you are walking, you can tell him, that is like the tree we made at home. See the leaves and bird!!!

Just an idea! Hope you have fun. 18 months, they are absorbing everything!!!