Tags: Activities for Littles
Arts and crafts are big in our house. Adrian is an incredible artist, though he’d never admit to it, and I’ve always been big on arts and crafts and DIY. Don’t get me wrong, I’m no Martha Stewart, but I can hold my own. I believe spending time crafting, painting or just creating something with your hands is therapeutic. (Although, the week before my wedding I didn’t have the same positive outlook on DIY…I might have bitten off more than I could chew and had to rush to finish all my overambitious projects the night before the wedding. Not my best moment.)
That minor hiccup aside, I love to create things, and I knew I wanted to instill that same love in Liev if I was able. I don’t have any factual evidence for this, but I think creating things with your hands is another way to expand imagination. I see the imagination as a muscle and the more you exercise it, the stronger it becomes. That might just be the Santa Cruz, granola girl inside talking, but that’s what I believe.
Crafting/creativity can be introduced in many ways. Build with blocks or Lego’s, play with Play Doh, color with crayons or paint, create stories using just images.
When Liev was about a year and a half we tried our hand at painting. We were living in Virginia at the time, and the weather wasn’t cooperating enough to take an easel outside, so I got creative. I took a large gallon-sized ziplock bag, slid a blank sheet of printer paper inside with a few drops of different colored paint. I closed the ziplock (double and triple checked it was secure) and let him go to town. At first, he was a little apprehensive—I don’t think he knew what to make of the texture of the paint through the ziplock. But in no time, he was having a ball.
The good thing about this method is it’s non-messy, a big deal for me because I struggle to accept the “mess” that comes with my boys. It’s also a wonderful way for them to experience textures and get in some sensory stimulation at the same time.
When he was finished I had the most beautiful little art piece for our home. We had a very successful first painting session.
Eventually the weather simmered down, and he was ready to start painting with a brush on an easel. We had bought him a box of washable Crayola paint pots in about 10 different colors. But how were we going to keep the paints from mixing and getting all muddled? I perused Pinterest and saw that someone had thought to use a cupcake tin…BRILLIANT! While I wasn’t about to let him anywhere near my Williams Sonoma Gold Touch cupcake tin, washable paints or not, I was able to pick one up at the dollar store. I set him up with a blank canvas on his easel, put a small drop of paint in each cupcake cup (a different color in each), handed him a brush and let him loose.
I’m not sure if it was the actual painting experience or the process of making an ungodly mess that he loved more, but he had an absolute blast. And at the end of the session, his paint pots were still intact, and we just rinsed his cupcake tin to be used again later. Such a wonderful little idea.
We tried watercolors next. This is another one you can do indoors which is really great during winter months. We picked up a roll of paper and a set of washable water colors (washable paints, crayons and markers are our friends) and with a little water in a cup taught him how to use watercolors. His watercolor paints didn’t stay as tidy as his paint pots did…there was a lot of color mixing, the watercolors were surprisingly easy to clean and transformed back to their original colors. Once they’re dry, gently wipe them with an alcohol dipped cotton ball. They won’t be perfect, but they’ll be distinguishable again.
I know I’m going on a bit about painting, but it is Liev’s favorite art project, and I’m always on the hunt for new ways to make it exciting. Occasionally, you can find really great painting projects in the dollar bin at Target. We found a wooden bird house and a wooden recipe box that made wonderful painting projects. After we finished the bird house, we picked up some bird seed and hung it outside. Liev has so much fun watching birds come to eat from the bird house he painted. Target now also has an arts and crafts aisle (an aisle or two down from the greeting cards usually) where you can buy paper mache animals, wooden letters, and all sorts of creative little projects.
It doesn’t have to be just painting projects either. In our house, we save toilet paper rolls and paper towel rolls because we’ve learned to use them a million different ways. Line up a few toilet paper rolls, hot glue them together and you have a perfect little carport for Hot Wheel sized cars. Use a little decorative tape to connect two rolls side by side, hang them from a bit of twine or yarn and you’ve got a pair of binoculars. Or my personal favorite, color or paint a few rolls, add strips of tissue paper, and hang a few shells, old keys, or metal beads to the bottom for a DIY windchime. The possibilities are endless.
A really fun art activity we do each month is the kids workshop at Home Depot. Home Depot has a DIY kids workshop on the first Saturday of each month. It’s free and they provide you with everything you need to build and paint a project. Simply go online, find your nearest Home Depot and register for the class. It’s great fun and another way to make friends because you tend to end up with the same people each month. Kids get a free apron and a pin to attach to it each month. This is a family favorite for us.
I look forward to the days when we can take on larger projects, and I wonder sometimes if Liev will inherit Adrian’s artistic abilities, but for now I’m content to watch him make messes with colored puff balls, paper lunch bags, and googly eyes.
Have suggestions for toddler art projects? Please share them…we’re always excited to try new things.
