Art Projects for Toddlers!

When Hayden was a baby, I couldn't wait for her to get big enough to do arts and crafts with me! A lot of people think its best to wait until a child is at least three or four before attempting to do artwork with a child. But toddlers are capable of doing art projects too! The key is to keep projects open-ended. Put more emphasis on giving your toddler chances to experiment with different colors and textures, and less about churning out craft projects and pictures that look a certain way.

Here are a few ideas to get your little artist started!

Suncatchers! You'll need clear contact paper, and different colors of tissue paper. Before you start, cut the tissue paper into different shapes. If a holiday is near by, you can make the shapes follow a theme. For instance, for a Valentine's project, cut out red, pink and purple tissue-paper hearts. For an Easter project, cut out pastel-colored shapes, and cut the contact paper in the shape of an egg. Lay a sheet of contact paper sticky-side up in front of your child. Show your child how to pick a tissue paper shape and set it down on the paper. Make your voice animated and cheerful, and say things like, "Sticky, sticky, sticky!" to capture your child's attention. You can let the shapes overlap as much as you want! Once the contact paper is covered, take a second piece of contact paper and lay it on top of the first one, sticky-side down. (Imagine the two pieces of contact paper as a sandwich, with the tissue paper in the middle!) You can now hang this up in a window. When the sun shines through it, it will look very pretty!

Fun With Stickers! This is a simple project with virtually no mess at all. You'll just need a sheet of paper, and some stickers. Look for sheets of stickers with a character or theme your toddler enjoys. For instance, Dora the Explorer stickers, or stickers with different animals on them. You'll have to peel the stickers off of the sheet for your child. Show her how to put the stickers on the paper. If your child doesn't seem ready to try this herself, ask her to point to where she wants you to put the stickers!

Collages! This simple project involves gluing things on paper. You can do this with any materials you want! Try craft materials like pom-poms, feathers, craft sticks and pieces of fun foam. You can also cut pictures out of magazines. Many toddlers especially enjoy looking at pictures of other babies and children, or pictures of animals. Or, you can always simply cut shapes out of construction paper! At first, just allow your child to place the collage pieces onto the paper in any way he wants to. When he's done, you can do all the gluing, keeping everything the way your toddler wanted it. This is often easier than trying to apply glue while your toddler is sitting there. However, another idea is to have your child point to where she wants you to put the glue, and then get her to stick something onto the glue. Eventually, your toddler will be able to take a small glue bottle into her own hands and do her own gluing!

Stamping and Printing! You can get large, foam stamps from a craft store. Or, use a halved apple or potato as a stamp. (You can carve shapes or designs into these to make them more decorative. Another idea is to put some bubble wrap onto the bottom of a soda bottle, and hold it there with a rubber band. One more idea is to cut a sponge into a shape. Dip these items in paint, and show your child how to stamp them on a piece of paper. Later, you can let your child dip the stamp into the paint on his own.

Finger Painting! This one is messy, but most kids love it! The rules are simple. Put a few blobs of paint on a piece of paper, and let your toddler smear it around with her hands! As she starts to get the idea, you can put the paint on a paper plate and let her choose which colors she'll put on the paper. A lot of people are afraid to do this with small children because they might lick the paint. If you're using a non-toxic type of paint such as Crayola or Roseart paints, and you're supervising your child, there is really no need to worry. Hayden always ingested a little bit of paint. However, if you're worried, you can make your own edible fingerpaints! One way to do this is to boil three cups of water, and stir it into one cup of cornstarch. You can now add food coloring to this mixture, let it cool, and let children fingerpaint with it! Adding food coloring to a mixture of one part flour to one part water also works. Adding food coloring to corn syrup makes another fun, if not sticky, fingerpaint, which will be very shiny when it dries. Or, simply make pudding, and let your child fingerpaint with that!

Painting with a brush! This project is just like fingerpainting, except that now your child can try using a paintbrush! Get larger paint brushes that will be easier for your toddler to grip in his chubby little hand. You can use any of the fingerpaint recipes as regular paint. If you're using store bought paint, using poster paint will work better than watercolors for young toddlers. Once again, you can either put some blobs of paint on the child's paper and let him smear it around with his paint brush, or put blobs of paint on a paper plate and show your child how to choose his own colors.

These are only a few of the art projects that toddlers can do! Doing art with your toddler is sure to be a lot of fun for both of you!