Never gauge your child’s development based on ideas for toddlers crafts (like this one) on the internet.
I made this mistake during my son’s first few months of “toddlerhood”. I would find a supposedly good toddler activity and find out, later on, that my son either has no interest in it or is not (YET) capable of doing it.
It’s easy to panic and think, “Oh my! My child can’t even hold a pencil properly – or has no desire to learn at all!” and think he/she is way behind everybody else. Most of the time, you could not be farther from the truth.
What I’m trying to say is use this list of crafts for toddlers to make at home simply as a guide. Some toddlers will be ready while others won’t be.
Just move on and find another activity for another day.
Also, always expect everything, whatever the activity is to be messy. The messier it is, the more fun your child will have.
- Finger paint
- toddler safe scissors
- cotton balls
- glue
- popsicle sticks
- pipe cleaners
- glitter glue
- construction paper
- empty toilet paper rolls
- printed craft tape
- googly eyes
- washable markers
- paper plates
- liquid watercolor paint
- paint brushes
- pencils
- pens
- ruler
- sponges
- crayons
- food coloring
- stringing beads
- straw
- bubble wrap
- cereal boxes
- tongue depressors
- cotton swabs
- transparent contact paper
- egg cartons
- felt paper
- small yogurt containers
- stickers
- chalk
- clothespins
- glue
- foam sheets
- markers
- clay
- playdough
- masking tapes
- oil pastels
Contents
Painting/Drawing Toddler Crafts For Age 2 & 3
At around their first birthday, children begin to show interest in scribbling.
Such a happy day for many parents this is!
Not only is a milestone met but FINALLY, here is an activity that could fill many of your child’s waking hours (unless you get one like my son who never showed any interest in drawing until this year at 7 years old).
Have the finger paint ready. Prepare yourself for your clean wall to soon be covered in blotches of paint. And if you’re one of the lucky ones, you might just have a nice lovely scribble on your white sofa.
For toddlers, painting/drawing should be all about the activity and not making a Pablo Picasso work of art. At any rate, every now and then try to encourage them to copy simple lines and shapes. Remember to stick to basic shapes – lines, circles, lots of lines next to each other, lines overlapping etc.
Listed below are some of the easiest and quickest drawing and painting crafts for toddlers.
Watercolor Painting
Watercolor always come in handy for many toddler craft activities for ages 2 and 3.
1. Let’s start with a getting your child to paint his/her name. This learning activity helps with your child’s recognition of the letters in her name. If you keep doing activities like this, before long, your child will be able to recognize his name.
Paint With Celery or brush:
Experiment with different kinds of brushes. In fact, do sessions without using a brush at all. Also, be creative and use other materials to work with paint.
2) Here’s one idea of painting with celery.
This is a very simple activity. Make a big drawing on paper and get the little one to start “painting” using celery stalk. Older toddlers can paint on to drawings of letters, numbers or shapes.
You can also use other vegetables available such as carrots, potatoes, eggplants, corn cob.
3) No vegetables? Use wooden forks instead.
4) The bottoms of bottles will do as well.
5) Fold a paper in half. Dab paint in the middle where the paper has a crease. Fold it. Open it. Now you have the picture of a butterfly or a monster!
The Hungry Caterpillar Inspired Craft Activities
The Hungry Caterpillar – it’s one of those classic books that many toddlers around the world love. So it’s only apt that we list some arts and crafts for toddlers inspired by the Hungry caterpillar.
33. Here’s the happiest and cutest hungry caterpillar evahhh!!! And what a simple activity too
And you can take the above idea even further by making a butterfly and sun to the pictures as illustrated in the video below.
34. On the subject of caterpillars, here’s another easy project. Doesn’t look so much like the Hungry Caterpillar himself but still just as fun.
35. And now, the caterpillar has changed into a beautiful butterfly. All you need is construction paper and lots and lots of sequins.
Crafts Using Egg Carton
Here’s another household item that you can recycle at home so make sure you save them.
10. The easiest egg carton activity. This is great for the child who’s into stacking. She’ll learn about colours too. It can get messy, but who cares?
11. A Caterpillar: Here’s one that’s made with the usual staples in a toddler’s craft kit: pipe cleaners and googly eyes. For a variation of this activity, cut out the face of your child from a photo and paste it to the face of the caterpillar.
12. Animal noses, so adorable.
13. Earth day, Spring or just an excuse to talk about the trees. Here’s a tree you can make from an egg carton.
14. Make Robots: Always a big hit with the boys
15. Make a crown
16. And here’s a video of a snake toy that your toddler can actually play with after craft time. It requires a little bit more help from you but your older toddler should enjoy coloring and putting the beads on the string on this one.
Hands and Feet
Getting toddlers hands and feet messy and covered in paint is often a great way to spend the day. You will have a memento to keep at the end too.
36. If you don’t like paint-covered toddler feet, you’ll love this bubble wrap paint idea.
37. Four leaf clover footprint at Parenting Patch
More Fun With Painting
These painting ideas take watercolours and crayons to a whole new level.
38. Ice Cube Painting: Who knew? And who invented it? Pretty cool, wet and fun idea.
39. Raised salt painting: I love how unique this looks.
40. Cotton ball painting:
41. Baking soda paint
Some More Awesome Toddler Craft Activities
These activities are easy to do at home with your toddler
42. Drawing With Lines: I love this craft activity. Simply have some paper cut up and ready and you’re good to go. You can even use old magazines.
43. Edible necklace at Toddler Activities and Tips.
44. Toddler wind chimes at Rainy Day Mum
45. Painting Sticks
46. Pool noodle Beading:
47. Put magazines into good use:
48. Popcorn Sculpture: This sculpture is all made of edible material so you never have to worry about your toddler eating them — plus it’s fun too.
49. Chia Heads: A great spring activity to learn about how plants grow – plus they end up with a little toy decoration too.