My son JUST turned two, and I was looking for some craft projects I can do with him. I looked online, but alot of the projects that say they are for two year olds seemed to be geared more towards three year olds (or maybe an older 2 yr old) my son is very independent so I need something that he can do with little help from me (for example I don't think he could glue something real well without me holding the glue bottle with him and he would get mad that I wasn't letting him do it.) he obviously is two young for a scissors. I am not sure how much painting he could do. We tried letting him paint flower pots for my mom and grandma for mothers day and he hated it I am not sure what we can do? oh and if anyone has any halloween related projects he might be able to do that would be great!
I really like the idea of things that are already sticky, like the sticky foam pieces. The thing with paint, is that he gets upset when its on his hands...he screams uh oh uh oh, intill you clean it off him, he does the same thing with wet grass, though he loves making messes with anything else lol. he loves coloring, and this summer discovered sidewalk chalk, but now will need more indoor projects as the weather gets colder.
I didn't even know they made bladeless scissors. I will have to find these! We tried painting again yesterday. It think the mistake I made the first time was putting him in his high chair to paint, and he wanted to eat the paint. this time I sat him at his toddler table and he had a blast!
You said he discovered sidewalk chalk this summer. Chalk is lots of fun indoors too. You can buy a small chalk board or use dark construction paper. They even make peel and stick chalk board panels: http://www.amazon.com/Wallies-Stick-Chalkboard-Sheet-Slat... I have a peel and stick white board and my kids love it. I like that I could put it up on the wall and not worry about it damaging the paint.
there are many different kinds of glue. You could use a glue stick or even glue dots (think double sided stickers). get some craft punches and let him "cut" out some shapes and glue them to make pictures and stuff. precut sticky foam shapes are fun too!
Clear contact paper is wonderful for two year old crafts. Can let your little guy dump glitter on it, stick cut up tissue/wrapping paper, crayon shavings ect. You can put a thick line drawing under it to give him a pattern to follow to make pumpkins for fall, simple christmas tree and circles (ornaments) for the holidays, ovals for easter, ect. Then when done just cover with another piece of contact paper or a piece of construction paper.
Even roll out a 3 foot length of it and let him walk on the sticky side (hold the corners/edges with chairs or other heavy object so he can unstick his feet easily - very light dusting with baby powder or flour to make it less sticky helps too)
Shaving cream was always fun too. If your LO still tastes/mouths everything use the canned whipped cream instead if there's no dairy issues otherwise you can use cool whip too. Add in a couple drops of food coloring to make some excitement (yellow and blue = green, red and yellow = orange). With shaving cream though you can then turn around and let him put hand prints on construction paper or on a large sheet of kraft paper. Let him "paint" with the colors he makes. My boys loved the mess of this kind of project and helped with their need for big muscle movements.
With the kraft paper, tear off a large sheet, have him lay down on it and draw and outline of him and let him imagine himself. Let him draw in his face, color in his shirt and pants, shoes. Ask if he's standing under a tree, is there a cat/dog next to him, is grandma's house in the background, is there a sun above him, ect. He can draw all that on the paper. Granted its not going to look like a lot the first time at 2yo but is a project that was fun to do once a year to see the "progress" of one my kids' growth.
At two he is all about the PROCESS not the product. That is he wants to enjoy doing but doesnt care about having a nice finished product. So if you let him finger paint he would enjoy mixing and painting until he had a nice murky brown painting. He would love playing with shaving cream on the shower wall and the washing it off. Let him learn to cut by just giving him craps of paper and scissors and make confetti, he wont be able to cut on a line, just experiment with cutting, if he cant cut show him how to tear paper into bits. He could make a pumpkin or leaf by tearing little pieces of orange or fall colored paper into bits then gluing them on a shape that you cut. you could apply the glue and let him put the pieces. When you want a beautiful finished product you will need to do most of the work but if you involve him by using hand prints like someone else suggested, trace and cut his hands many many times on fall colored paper then glue them into a wreath to hang on the door. Ask him to collect acorns to add to it. HAVE FUN!
My DD is 18 months and has taken to crayons. Even a few scribbles and we say good job. We're going to introduce her to Scotch tape, even if she just explores the texture and sticks it on her place of choice (my shirt?)
I might be really brave and go the finger paint route. Have you tried those?
If you have a craft store like a Michael's near you, I think they offer crafts for kids.
I worked with toddlers for years and you would be surprised what they can do as far as using glue. You could get glue sticks for instance, and safety sicssors and find a pumpkin pattern let him cut his own orange paper and glue it to the Pumpkin pattern. You can also do crayons and let him color, or one of my kids favorite activities was getting different fabrics and textures and letting them glue it to paper.
They make these wonderful things called Nuudles (can purchase thru Amazon). They are similar to packing peanuts but used for crafts. All you need to do is press them onto a wet sponge and they stick to paper! My daycare kids love them, simple and nonmessy.
Have him decorate a pumpkin or gored using stickers or markers!
How about cut out cookies? You could bake them and he could help frost and decorate them.
cut a bunch of cute pictures out of your Parents or other magazines. give him a glue stick and a large piece of paper, and let him go for it, making a collage. regular glue is hard for even preschoolers, so go with sticks for sure.
the sticky foam pieces are hard for kids to do, because of removing the paper, so try stickers. hit the dollar store - at this age, my daughter loved just sticking stickers on paper. my grandma gives me all the address labels she recieves in the mail from charities!
how about rubber stamps and pads?
my daughter's preschool teacher always says that it's about the process for little ones, not the finished product. he may not be able to do real crafts just yet.
My kids love scissors at that age. You can get spring loaded ones so they can cut. You can also get blade-free ones (can't remember if you can get blade free and spring loaded). YOu'd just need to sit and watch him, but it's been a favorite for my kids even at that age.
Instead of a bottle of glue, try a glue stick for him to use (might get messy, but it's cleaner than a bottle of glue)...and you coming up behind discreetly with your own and adding any needed additional glue.
One of my kid's favorite activities is to use a disposable baking pan (like one you'd use to cook casserole in and give to someone and they can toss it). I put water in it, just a few inches, and then add little creatures - like the little lizards and dinosaurs and things like that. I do it at the kitchen table, and put towels under so catch water that splashes out. My kids LOVE it. I also give them little measuring spoons and cups to pour the water back and forth in.
Here's a pic to show you what I mean (he's making a funny face because he was in the middle of telling me something very "important"). You'll need to delete the space before .com to get the link to work:
http://lh4.ggpht. com/_KuLOYV4GQNs/TFSOcZzSAMI/AAAAAAAALLc/MYorkFrCz9E/s1600-h/playing%2C-trampoline%2C-pants-falling-down-003%5B4%5D.jpg
You can't see it, but he had a little paper cup that he was playing with too.
Another idea is to get a water and/or sand table (at his age, I suggest getting either/or otherwise the sand will likely get a little too full with water like my 2 yr old did much to the dismay of our older kids!). Water games like this they will play with forever.
Glue sticks work well for that age.
My kids always liked "edible" art....painting with pudding.
You can make bats out of two of his painted feet prints, add googly eyes when dried and triangle ears.
You can also make bat wings from his two hand prints...sure its not much participation on his part, but they love to see the finished product and know they helped.
