Here you will find various art and craft ideas for children in the age
range of 12 months to 3 years old. Of course most art ideas given on the Kid's Page can be
altered to fit your child's age and maturity. If you are on this page, chances
are you are either a parent or teacher. I hope you can get as many uses out of
them as I have over the years. Have lots of fun.
Salt Pictures
Paint a picture using watercolors. While the paint is still wet, sprinkle salt over it. The kids love to use the salt sprinkler. The paint will look textured. You can use this for cards, stationery,etc.
Sculpting Clay
Parents you will have to make the clay. However, this is an easy recipe that when you are done with is unharmful to the kids. In a saucepan over medium heat you need to mix 1 cup of cornstarch, 2 cups of baking soda, and 1 1/4 cups of water. Stir until it thickens. Let it cool. Knead the dough over waxed paper, you can sculpt it into different shapes. Let them air dry and you can paint them.
Marble Painting
There is a lot of adult supervision for this one. The kids will love to roll the marble around in the box though. Get a large marble, and place it into paint. Place a large sheet of manilla paper into a large box. Take out the marble and place it into the box. Roll it around the box. You will get a cool design. Let dry.
Bubble Paint
Be careful with this one that they don't drink the bubble mixture in. Most bubble mixture is non-toxic but it still won't make it a pleasant experience for them. Take several cups of bubble mixture and put different colors of food coloring in each one. Place the cups one at a time on a sheet of manilla paper with a straw in it. Have the child blow in the mixture until it bubbles over onto the page. The food coloring will "stain" the paper that color. You can use different colors for each picture to make a nice blend of colors. This has a really nice pastel affect.
Q-Tip Painting
I got this idea one day when I had promised my kids that I we would paint one afternoon. Much to my disappointment there were no paint brushes to be found. So I decided to get creative and got out some Q-Tips for them to paint with. After the original "What are we going to do with these" questions, they will have a great time with them. It is a little different.
Finally more craft ideas for the toddlers!
Cardboard Roll People
You will need cardboard rolls, like those from toilet paper or paper towels. You will also need pipe cleaners, pom poms and other misc. craft supplies.
Use the cardboard holder as the body. Then add the pipe cleaner as the arms and legs. You can use a large pom pom or waded paper as the head and then decorate. You can use felt for clothes if you like or simple construction paper. You can also use the construction paper as the head (cut into a circle).
Shakers
Use empty containers such as oatmeal containers, empty 2 liter bottles, etc. Put dried beans into them and close tightly. If you are making these for really little children (this actually makes a great rattle for infants also) then you may want to consider gluing the lid back on. You can use contact paper to decorate your new shaker. Very simple and inexpensive.
Colored Plates
You will need 2 paper plates and colored cellophane. Cut a large hole in the middle of the 2 plates. Then put the colored cellophane in the middle of one and glue. Then glue the 2 plates together. The kids can now look through them to see the world in different colors.
Those are just a few new additions, but......
Under Construction. More ideas on the way. Come Back to see us
A list of things to do with your toddler (not necessarily craft related)
Color
Blow Bubbles
Hide-n-seek
peek-a-boo
Chase
Sing
Dance
Look at bugs
Obstacle course out of the furniture
A fort out of pillows, cushions, blankets (a favorite in my house)
Take a walk
Read
Go to the park
Do a craft!
Roll a ball back and forth
A puppet show
Run through the sprinklers
Splash in water puddles after it rains(another favorite)
Karaokee (you don't need a machine, just a pretend mike)
