Craft ideas for a two year old?

[url=http://familyfun.go.com/arts-and-crafts]FamilyFun: Arts and Crafts (Craft Ideas) - and More Family Fun[/url] I have used stuff on this site a few times. There's also a book called The Stay at Home Parent's Survival Guide with some cute ideas in it, and 365 Days of Baby Einstein has some crafts. Yesterday was cold out, and H has a cold, so I filled up a big galvanized serving tray w/ dry oatmeal and let him use his toy bulldozer and sand bucket and shovel in it. Kept him busy for 2 hours!!! Paper grocery sacks are an endless source of amusement---they make excellent monster costumes w/ very little adaptation, they make BIG paper dolls, or metropolises (metropoli?) which can be populated by Fisher Price people. And then, of course, there's always making jewelry and mosaics out of macaroni.

My little one loves to work with glue. A white piece of paper, non-toxic craft glue and little pieces of colorful paper in various shapes - keeps him busy for as long as the glue holds out. :) Draw the outline of an apple on a large piece of paper and have him either fill in the apple or outline the apple with dot-shaped stickers in whatever color you have/want.

I'll add one more. Crayola has some "watercolor" paints that are really gel based and don't need water. They're clear in the little paint pans, but turn color on the paper and don't work on anything BUT the paper. I think they're called "Colorworks". H got some in his Valentine gift and was happily "painting" with them as I left this morning.

Thank you, thank you! I can't wait to try out some of these ideas. It's true that Loren loves craft time, but I think I love it even more :) Thanks for mentioning Crayola Colorworks, HBV. I looked at those last weekend and wondered if they would be worth the money.

I have a two year old and watch two other two year olds. I try to do craft time 3-4 days during the week. I try to come up with "themes" for a few weeks based on the current holiday. Recently, for Valentine's Day projects a few things we did were: - white construction paper. Squirt some plain white men's shaving cream and add one or two colors of finger paint. We used red and purple. The kids loved the shaving cream! They painted and swirled the colors on the paper. When it dried, I cut out heart shapes and hung them on the back of the front door. - I cut out heart shapes and the kids taped three or four on a piece of white construction paper and then painted the entire paper on the easel using red, pink and purple paint. I pealed off the hearts and what was left was the white paper in heart shapes. - Gave the kids doilie hearts and foam hearts and they stuck and glued them on construction paper. (They love to use the glue stick) - The buckets of foam shapes that are sticky on the back (peal and stick like stickers) are a huge hit! I spelled out each of the kids names and they stuck them to a large heart. We glued the heart to a piece of red construction paper. Then I gave them smaller foamie hearts to stick on the paper and glitter glue in the squeeze bottles to decorate the paper. Just a few of the recent projects. Similar things can be used for the upcoming St. Patrick's Day. Use green paint with the shaving cream, paint with green and white paint over shamrock cut-outs. I'll probably due some kind of matching with shamrocks of different sizes. Or counting - draw boxes on a piece of paper and number the corners and glue or stick things in each box to match the number. Stickers are huge. A piece of paper and stickers will keep them busy for awhile. Oh, golf ball or marble painting. Place a sheet of construction paper in the bottom of a shallow pan or box. Put some drops of paint on the paper (drop the paint around the entire page but not too much paint) and have the kids shake the pan or box to move two or three golf balls (or marbles) around. Handprints can be turned into just about anything. In January when we were doing snow and snowmen, a white handprint on blue paper became five little snowmen on a snow pile (your finger naturally has three parts which make for a perfect snowman. Use markers for the finishing touches like eyes, nose, scarf, hat) and glued cotton balls that were pulled apart on the bottom for added snowy effect. The kids also stuck on foamie snowflakes on the top of the page. Again, just a few ideas to get you started. As an elementary teacher and former preschool teacher, I've done a fair share of craft projects in my day. I just adapt some of the harder crafts for two year olds and keep in mind the messier the project, the more they love it! My three would paint every day if I let them, so I try to come up with as many paint related projects as I can. Cooking projects are also fun, especially if they can eat and sample along the way. I also have a couple large bins in a closet upstairs filled with craft supplies on hand. Construction paper of all colors, paint in all colors, buttons, popcicle sticks, pom-poms, pipe cleaners, glitter, glitter glue, watercolor paints, crayons, scissors, coloring books, hot glue gun, white glue, glue stick, stickers, different shapes foamies with the sticky on the back, etc. Even in a pinch, you can create something wonderfully two-year old.

I agree with Shai's Mom. Nick is ALL about ANYTHING with glue right now. :)

AP got an art easel for C'mas, but I keep forgetting to find the roll of paper to go with it, so we've only used the dry erase side so far. He's very good about ONLY using those markers on the whiteboard, and loves them. I put a vinyl backed tablecoth on our dining table and let him go with: washable tempera paints and bulbous handled kid paint brushes (I thin they're Melissa and Doug brand), water colors or fingerpaints. I made stamps by finding cheap foam shapes in the craft section and hotgluing them to the plastic caps off laundry detergent bottles. He loves those. I also use construction or scrapbooking paper and decorative scissors to cut out shapes, and he uses a glue stick to put these on paper and addes stickers and colors on them to make lovely collages. Playdough has also been a nice hit - for 10-20 minutes, I can leave him playing with it while I putter nearby. I put him inthe high chair and let him play on the tray, then I can just pop the tray in the dishwasher. Or if you're not still using a high chair, let him play w/ it on a cookie sheet.

DLTK Letter Craft for Kids website has a lot of great ideas for toddlers through elementary age crafts. They have a lot of different forms that can be cut out and glued together. My son's favorite so far is the bumblebee we made a couple of weeks ago. Who knew glueing pieces of paper together could be so exciting! My son also loves the foam stickers in various shapes. His little fingers can peel the backing off easily. Marcia

Oops - another paint project I forgot -0 take water colors and let them paint coffee filters - they look really pretty, then you can glue them to paper when they're dry to make flowers, animals, anything!

There are so many crafts ideas like coloring images this is one of the best activities for LO's and DIY stamps, arranging the torn paper into a shape which has drawn, negative leaf impressions. Coloring images were kids can learn something about the colors and the images they color. My DS would love this activity to do. He has colored the images of mickey mouse whihc i have downloaded for the below site. He loves most of the cartoon images and he enjoys this activity. [url=http://www.momjunction.com/articles/cute-tom-and-jerry-coloring-pages-your-toddler-will-love-to-color_0082100/]10 Cute Tom And Jerry Coloring Pages Your Toddler Will Love To Color[/url]

There are so many craft activities for your toddler to do: Check out some of the interesting craft ideas below: Alphabet Craft Activities Photo Frame Craft Activities Shape Crafts Activities Fall Craft Activities

Art and crafting at this age is all about the experience! Art and craft really makes your kid imaginative and creative. There is a usual tendency of kids that they get bored very often, so engaging them in art and craft will help you out very much. For more information visit Pocket Full of Feelings as it will show you what feeling is driving your child’s behavior and give you techniques for dealing with that feeling successfully.

Art and crafting at this age is all about the experience! Art and craft really makes your kid imaginative and creative. There is a usual tendency of kids that they get bored very often, so engaging them in art and craft will help you out very much. For more information visit Pocket Full of Feelings as it will show you what feeling is driving your childs behavior and give you techniques for dealing with that feeling successfully.

I use to do with my LO making letter with clay, puzzles games, play with a muffin tin and toy balls, playing with bubbles and balls, making paper flower, arranging the images in order. My kids love doing these activities. Most of the time he will be busy in making letters with clay