Needs crafts to do with my 2 year old?

Sandy - posted on 08/15/2012

One of the things I used to do with my son when he was around two and three was to make homemade puzzles. When my son was a toddler my husband and I did not have much money with which to buy a lot of toys for him regularly so this became a project that I enjoyed and he loved having home made puzzles that were made by his mommy. Since your little girl enjoys coloring maybe you could turn one of her coloring book pages or a little drawing that she has done into a personalized puzzle. It is really very simple to do this and only requires some magazine clippings of pictures or photos. (or your daughter's coloring pages or drawings) of things that a preschooler would enjoy looking at, some laminating plastic and a pair of scissors along with a pencil and some envelopes. The best pictures are large ones. Just draw " puzzle shapes" however small or large you would like them to be on top of the picture, cut the "shapes' out and cover them with lamanating plastic. You can also sandwich the entire picture in laminating plastic and then cut out individual shapes. You can then put each puzzle in a seperate envelope and label it.

Another rainy day project that my kids always enjoyed was making home make play dough. There are recipies available online for this. Each batch of playdough can be colored with food coloring but you might want to do this part yourself.The ingredients are very inexpensive and there are only a few.

Because I was also a pre school teacher I had access to a number of pre school activity books that included lots of ideas for fun projects that cost little or nothing, most of the things needed for the projects are things you probably have somewhere in your house. We used to refer to these projects as "scrap craft projects'. You can easily find these types of books at your local bookstore, local library or better yet a teacher's supply store. The time passes much too quickly so make as many happy memories with your child as you can. Hope this helped.

Nikki - posted on 08/10/2012

What I use to do when Grace would have her friends over, I would either draw pictures and let them color them to do be displayed around the house, espically around holidays. I would let her use glue sticks and glue things together and we made a car once for her out of cardboard and let her color it in, also making macaroni necklaces.

Jamie - posted on 08/06/2012

Have you made flubber or oobleck? Kids love that stuff. You probably have everything in your kitchen and laundry room. http://www.sippycupcocktails.com/2012/08...

Chelle - posted on 09/07/2011

I've made many different activities for my eldest, a lot using a laminator and magnets: I've created animals, with separate bodies, heads, ears, mouths, noses, legs etc that he can create different creatures with. His room is painted with the sky an the water so I did different underwater creatures and different things that can be found in the air, I just cut out different shapes that he can make things out of by putting them together. And recently as he's really taken to gluing I've now cut out shapes again, not laminated this time that he can stick on paper to create different patterns. The first one we did we made into a placemat by laminating the whole thing and I will get him to design some coasters. Painting is fun and kids like those butterfly painting where you squeeze blobs of paint and then fold your paper and smooth it so when you open it up there's a mirror image. You could take her outside and let her collect things she finds ie leaves, feathers, flower petals even a little dirt, twigs and get her to glue them all down and make a collage. I have this one activity where I have cut out various heads, bodies, accessories, legs etc from magazines and he creates a person out of them, you could do leave rubbing or coin rubbing, teach her to trace around different shapes or get her to draw or colour something then cut it out so it makes a simple jigsaw which you and her could put back together. Options are endless only limited by your imagination. I also have various bits and bobs collected over time like toilet rolls, lids, scraps of material that can be used for collages or creations oh and one more idea you could just get an empty box and have her decorate it. In lochs case we just used different wrapping paper scraps, scrunched up or otherwise. Let me know if you try any. Have fun

Tammy - posted on 03/09/2011

I have a friend who works in a daycare. One of the things they do is felt storyboards

You can make a story board out of felt. Make a lot of different shapes, animals, people, etc., that might interest her. Then you can sit and make a story with her by sticking the felt shapes on the felt background.

Mary - posted on 01/04/2011

Think simple - get paperplates and draw faces on them - show happy, sad. Then you can make a Mickey Mouse face by cutting out shapes - like big ears and sticking on with glue - let them do stick glue - makes them feel important that they can do grown up stuff. Then you can use a paper bag and make a puppet, find materials around the house, wool for the hair, spare buttons for the eyes, just keep it simple. What I did one time around Haloween, I cut up the egg cartoon in 3 pieces, we colored them and then we glued them to a paper plate and we pretended we were aliens with scary faces. Hope that helps.

Amanda - posted on 09/24/2010

You can cut out things shapes, holiday ideas and let her color them..If you arent good at drawing you can print things out and have her color them.

My girls love to paint...You can always google fun age appropriate crafts if you are having a hard time coming up with things...

I always do handprint art to with paint so I can know how big they have gotten over the years...A cute idea too is using different ink pads or markers to color her finger tips and make different animals like lady bugs,cats, bumblebees ...really anything.

Aileen - posted on 06/29/2010

Finger painting is always fun and if you take chocolate pudding and mix it up and let her finger paint with that it won't matter if she licks her fingers. At christmas time you can let her dip her hands in the paint and make handprints on blank wrapping paper. This makes lovely wrap for gifts. If you have small cookie cutters, you can let her practise with playdough. There is a really easy recipe for homemade playdough on my web site Fun For Kids at http://aileenw4bobbyg.tripod.com

Mallory - posted on 06/21/2010

Besides the obvious coloring book projects, your daughter may enjoy water colors, or another kid-safe painting project. Paints give a completely different look than crayons or markers, and may give her a different and interesting way to add color to things.
Another idea? If your daughter's room needs a "lift" or maybe she's ready for another theme, whatever the case may be, there is a wall paint that allows for writing/drawing on the walls, and washing later. Perhaps a cool project for you and your daughter would be to coat her walls in this new paint, then let her make her own creations on her walls! Give her crayons, pencils, whatever will wash off of the paint when she (or you) get ready. Her scenery can change whenever she wants, she can color and draw as often as you both want, there is plenty of room for you all to create things together, and lots of space for imagination and watching her creativity grow! Good luck, and hope your little artist has fun!

Deepa - posted on 06/08/2010

hi Jenn, you can sit along with your daughter and give her a blank sheet of paper and ask her to scrible on that with a few color pencils.Later you can cut the scribbled sheet in different shapes and hang them in her room.