Creative Ideas For Toddlers

Once children become mobile, it is often difficult to keep them in one place. Toddlers love to explore and learn so parents should take advantage of this to provide experiences for learning and fun. Creativity unleashed at a young age can manifest itself in many positive ways in the future. There are many ways to keep a one and a half to three year old entertained indoors or outdoors.

Arts and crafts projects are fun for any child and activities like foot tracing and finger-painting are the old standbys. Come into the modern age by making sand art using cereal like Froot Loops. Crush the cereal with a rolling pin or in the food processor. Let the child rub a glue stick onto a piece of construction paper to create a design and then use an empty spice container to sprinkle the crushed cereal onto the paper. Tip the paper onto another piece allowing the excess “sand” to slide off the page.

Items like feathers, leaves, flowers, and pine branches make perfect paint brushes. Let a toddler use these to paint on pieces of paper. Another neat painting project involves sprinkling powdered drink mix or Jell-O powder onto a piece of paper placed in a flat box or a large baking pan. Place an ice cube in the box and allow the child to move the box to create a beautiful painting.

Stickers make great craft tools and they can be used to design wreathes and ornaments. Cut a ring or other shape from cardboard and allow the child to apply stickers to the cardboard to make an attractive wreath or ornament. Wrap a bow through the ring or through a hole punched in the ornament and use it to secure the creation to a wall or window.

Household items that seem like trash can become supplies for creative projects. Save some bubble wrap and tape it to a flat surface. Let the child paint on the bubble wrap using several colors of liquid tempera paint. Press a piece of construction paper to the bubble wrap to transfer a print worthy of display on the refrigerator.

Toddlers can also help their parents outdoors by learning how to take care of a plant or planting seeds that attract butterflies. Other fun outdoor projects include homemade bubbles with huge wands made from wire coat hangers and a water balloon catch. The toddler years are fun times so parents should make the most of them.

By: Judith Hofstadt Lambert

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