Craft Suggestions?

L., 1st keep it simple, cut a hole in a paper plate, glue leaves, dried or live flowers to it! (use a glue stick) hang on the front door! (or find a grapevine wreath, stick leaves and pine branches.. put a ribbon on it. Collect sticks and glue to a piece of paper, Hon, who cares what it looks like! Do finger painting with pudding, use vanilla on dark paper if chocolate scares you. It is easy, you can do it! K.

At this age the craft needs to be simple and quick. Their attention span isn't that long. A couple of things my twins daughters liked at this age and still do. 1. Playdough - I would make my own. Putting it in their mouths was a challenge. Rolling pin and a couple of cookie cutters a must. 2. Stamping - Bingo dot stampers (dollar store) and any other stamp with a stamp pad. 3. They also love to have someone trace their hands, feet and with a big piece of paper, their bodies. 4. One fun activity with paint is take the top of a copy paper box, line it with paper and take a small truck, roll the wheels in paint, then let your child make tire tracks on the paper.

Hope this helps a little. Good luck.

check out this book "The Everything Toddler Activities Book" by Joni Levine it is full of fun and educational activities. In the meantime try letting him paint with pudding and whip cream with food coloring in it. It is messy but my dd has a ball and she can even eat the paint!

It's not totally a craft, but one of my favorites is making edible playdough...there's a ton of different recipes on the internet to choose between, I have one I love that uses Kool Aid for coloring and smell. It's a measuring/cooking activity and then it's a sensory activity to play with the playdough and while I still discourage the eating (except for the peanut butter one which is pretty yummy) you know if your child eats some of it he'll be fine. Other activities we did last winter were painting with watercolors (easy clean up) playing in shaving cream, stickers, and making collages of whatever magazine pics I cut out...glue sticks work better (my daughter loves glue)!! Good luck! and have fun!!

Just throwing out some ideas:
Since your son likes to eat crayons, why not fingerpaint with yogurt? If he eats it, who cares? :)

Or make some edible clay to make shapes. Big Pasta necklaces?

Show him how to dust the house (where there are no fragiles) with a cloth or duster..."cooking" (with a pan and wooden spoon) when you are in the kitchen - these things can also be used for an impromptu jam session. Plastice tubs of different sizes - stack them, nest them, wear them as hats.

When my son was that that age it was the best. I would lay down an old comfortor and give him finger paint, brushes and paper and let him go. He LOVED it. I have several of his painting creations framed from bach then.. They are my favorite decor on my walls.
Many times he would paint all over himself, it was hilarious and I took great photo's of it. I would just take him straight to the tub afterwards. Then he would play in the water for a hour. Those were fun afternoons. AND I always played fun kids music or baby genius CD's in the back ground.
Also the same comfortor was brought out for play dough.
We both would play and create with playdough for long lengths of time.
Other things I liked to do back then. I would go to Michael's or JoAnns and buy wood bird houses or ceramic piggy banks and let him paint them. I still have all the things he painted. Both stores have 40% & 50% coupons each week in the paper. So you can get items to paint for under a dollar sometimes. You could buy plain wood Christmas ornaments and have him paint them and either give the as gifts from him or use them to decorate packages. Who cares how they look that is the greatness of it all.....it was made by your son.
Also I would make paper airplanes (very simple, just use white paper) and he would decorate them with washable markers.
I always save toilet paper rolls and egg cartons. My son can create anything with these objects. Also blow up balloons and draw faces on them and then bat them around the room.
Oh boy, balloons were always the best back then.
Anything sensory is good such as a big tub of rice and hide small objects in it and have him find them. Or just tubs of different textures like sand, noodles, marbles, feathers, cotton balls. Kids love to put their hands in and dig into all these things but hiding things in them adds to the fun.
I swear the best thing is just card board boxes. Get several
boxes and let him climb inside them all or make a fort.
The best is go to the big box stores and ask for a refrigerator box or washer or dryer box. OH my gosh we made great forts and tunnels with boxes. It is endless.
Have a great winter season creating. I wish I could go back one day in my son's life when he was that age. Those were the simple days. Now it's basketball, football, taekwondo,
homework, bible study, etc. etc. I love this time too, it's just a little busier.
M.

I think that finger painting with pudding is good. There a lot of ideas on the web about some fun, safe activities to do with children this age. You might also try doing something with cheerios or fruit loops since if it goes into the mouth it is not a big issue.

You've got some great suggestions, which I've noted for myself! Here's a link I use:
http://familyfun.go.com/parenting/child/feature/toddlers-...
Have fun!!!

Fingerpainting is fun for any age. Also, my son and I do paper bag puppets and then have a puppet show. He loves that!

I have three boys and a girl. For each of my boys, they were simply too active to sit for long doing crafts. Building block towers and knocking them down, playing basketball on a tiny hoop (playskool has a great one, about a foot high) or learning to roll or catch a ball, etc. Those were the things they loved. My daughter, on the other hand, has always loved to color, draw, cut, and do all of that. So your son may just be a little too hungry for action right now to sit and do a craft - especially since the play-dough and other objects will probably end up in his mouth! You might try some more movement-oriented activities that improve motor skills, hand-eye quardination, etc. Good luck!

I lover finger painting at this age, also the have foam kits that you can make Door Hangers, crosses, etc these are also good ideas.

Put on a smock and go nuts. The kids at my daycare love glue and homemade paints. For glue give him pieces of colored paper you cut out into shapes and put a little glue on a small paper plate. Have him use a q-tip to apply the glue then stick the paper on. Or you can put the glue on the big paper and he can just stick the pieces on. Another is edible paint. Use vanilla instant pudding with food coloring or evaporate milk from a can with food coloring. Kids even love using just a paint brush with a bowl of water to paint a colored piece of paper. Not too exciting but they love the paper changing. Same with water painting books. paint with toys too. Use little cars and other wheeled toys to drive them through the paint then drive them on white paper. You can point out how each makes different tracks. Have Fun!