Toddler Craft Ideas

Every parent needs some toddler craft ideas and every toddler needs some rainy day activities. The TV is okay for a little while but it doesn't develop many skills that are so important to early child development and many programmes are unsuitable for young children. With these fun activities for toddlers your toddler will have the opportunity to develop his imagination, creativity and hand-eye coordination.

The wonderful thing about toddler craft ideas is that anybody can do them. You don't need to be an artist or be able to make or paint beautiful pictures. All you generally need is some paper, scissors (child friendly), glue and bits and bobs.

Make a craft box and start collecting - tops of milk bottles, cardboard tubes, foil, rubber bands, old cards, dried pasta, egg cartons, cotton reels, leaves, doiles, sticky paper, threads, wool, dried beans, rice, tissue paper, pom-pomps, textiles, pebbles, flowers, glitter, sticky shapes, shells, buttons. Keep old magazines, holidays brochures and an odd toy brochure to cut out the pictures. Or nip down to your local store and buy a craft box to start you off! You can get amazing things for very little money.

When you do a toddler craft activity you need to plan it a little. You need enough time to finish the project in one go if possible. So pencil in an afternoon, let your toddler know what you are going to do and keep to the plan. A word about glue: make sure it is non-toxic and child friendly such as glue sticks, wall paper paste or PVA glue.

Here's 10 quick and easy toddler craft ideas to get you going:

Toddler Craft Ideas: Make a collage

All you need are some bits and bobs from your craft box (bought or made up yourself), paper, scissors and glue.Sit down at the table and decide a theme according to what your toddler is interested in. Perhaps spaceships, animals, the current season, people, or nothing at all. It doesn't have to have a theme - your toddler can just glue whatever he likes! There are no rules about what the collage needs to look like.

For a very young child simply spread PVA glue on the paper and then your toddler can choose which bits to stick down.

Toddler Craft Ideas: Decorate A Shoe Box

Keep an old shoe box and decorate it with pretty tissue paper and glue, or paint it with poster paints. Stick stickers on it, put glitter on it! Your toddler can then even use it for some of his little things or he may want to give it to somebody!

Toddler Craft Ideas: Make A House

Toddlers love large cardboard boxes! They can become a bit of a nuisance for us parents who want more space and things to be kept tidy, but your toddler will love it! Get a largish cardboard box from your grocery store and make it into a house. Cut out a door and window, put a cardboard tube in the roof for a chimney. Attach a little bell for the doorbell, make a flag to show when you are home. Your kids will love it. Alternatively use the cardboard box to make a boat, a car, a spaceship.....so much fun had so easily.

Toddler Craft Ideas: Painting Stones

Painting stones is very easy and makes useful presents for other members of the family. Simply go on a pebble hunt with your toddler, then wash it in warm soapy water, dry it and paint it. It will make a pretty paper weight and your toddler will love being a part of the project from start to finish.

Toddler Craft Ideas: Use non cook clay to make shapes and characters.

Non cook clay is easy to use and is like playdough but the items dry hard and can then be painted. You can make little bowls, paper weights, animal ornaments, etc. For special occasions, such as a birthday, your toddler can help you roll out the clay and then use a shaped cutter, such as a heart, to make a distinguishable shape. You can then add plastic beads into the heart and glitter to decorate it. It's very effective and easy. Non-cook modelling clay can be bought online or in stores.

However you probably won't want to keep all the items that your child makes so playdough could be used for the majority of the time, and clay for special occasions.

Toddler Craft Ideas: Make Jewellery

You can either make jewellery from dried pasta in various shapes, sizes and colours. Measure a piece of wool or elastic so that is slightly longer than want you want the finished bracelet to be. Open a paper clip and use it as a blunt needle to thread the pasta shapes together. Alternatively buy pretty, large beads and thread these together.

Toddler Craft Ideas: Make Some Instruments

Toddlers love being in control of noise. Keep some small plastic bottles and funnel in dried rice, macaroni or dried beans. Secure the bottle cap with masking tape and there you have a maracas. Put on a cd and have a dance!

Toddler Craft Ideas: Painting

There are lots of different ways to paint: using a brush, fingers, a comb, cardboard, a sponge, a toothbrush, string. When you're painting an old muffin tray is very handy to try and keep the paint separate, to keep the paint pot low to the ground to less then likelihood of it getting spilt.

You can blow paint over the paper with a straw, or make a picture from bubbles. All you have to do is have a point of thing paint to hand, blow bubbles into it so that it bubbles up and then gently lay a piece of paper over the top of it.

Or you can use stencils to create a scene. Another idea is to draw a picture with crayons or a wax candle. Then paint over the picture with thin watery paint and the crayon or wax picture will shine through magically.

If you want to do finger painting then mix four with powder paint to make a thick paint. You can also include hand prints and if you really don't mind the mess foot prints too! Hand prints are fun to keep and fun for your child to see when they are a little older and their hands are so much bigger.

You can also make prints from old bits and bobs around the house: large buttons, old keys, pegs, plastic cups (to make circles),

Making Models

If you want a longer term project then you can start making a model village. It sounds ambitious but really it's not! You can have a little box for a shop and your toddler can paint the box and then stick on items that the shop might contain e.g. for a bakers, stick on cuttings of breaks and cakes, and there you have a bakery. For a grocery, decorate a box with fruit and vegetables, etc. If you have a few toddlers around then each can do a shop. Once you have made a few you can use a piece of largish cardboard, painted, as the ground and place the shops on the "village". You can then add houses, little cars, people, etc.

Make greeting cards

Toddlers often love giving cards that they've made and the recipients love to receive something homemade. If your toddler has had a birthday then doing a whole load of cards can be a laborious task but if make a few at a time then you can use them as you need to. Simply fold a piece of card in half and decorate with glue and bits, paint or stickers. When you come to write the card your toddler can "write" something inside and you can add a translating message too!