Spend A Fun Afternoon Crafting With Your Preschooler

Finding something fun and exciting to do for your toddler when she’s bored isn’t always easy. You don’t want to just turn on the TV, but if you have to read ‘The Little Engine That Could’ one more time, you might just go insane. Here’s an idea for you. You can make some easy crafts with your toddler instead. You and your child will both enjoy this special time together and you can both express your creativity. It’s a great way for you to spend quality time with your child. What are you waiting for? Grab some crafting supplies and get started.

Make Sockpuppets Together For our first idea, we will turn a simple sock into a fun little puppet. It won’t take you long to make this craft with your child and all you need are an old sock, and some basic crafting supplies. I always enjoy making this craft with my daughter, because it gives us both something fun today and she gets a new toy to play with long after we are done making it.

Sockpuppets allow your toddler to pretend play They are one of the best toys to spark your child’s imagination, and of course it is very simple to make them. All you need is a sock, and various crafting supplies to turn it into a puppet. You can use buttons for eyes, or pick up a pack of wiggly eyes at your crafting store. Of course you could also cut them out of felt or scraps of fabric and glue them on. Use leftover yarn for hair and additional pieces of felt or fabric to make clothing, or glue in a tongue. Just use your imagination – and that of your toddler of course and you’ll come up with all kinds of fun puppets.

Collage Craft Idea Does your child love to cut things out – with safety scissors of course.Why not use this to keep your child busy making a collage. You don’t need much for this activity, just some old magazines, a large piece of paper, and of course scissors and glue. Of course you could also add some crayons to the mix to let your child draw around the glued-on pictures.

Have your preschooler cut her favorite things out of the magazine pages. Anything she would like to include in the collage goes. Then it’s time to glue the cut-outs on blank sheet of paper. After the glue had a chance to dry, the two of you can further decorate your collage with markers or crayons. Don’t forget to hang the piece of art up when you’re all done.

Fun Crafts You Can Make With Paper Plates We always have paper plates in the house and it is one of the first ‘crafting’ supplies I grab when I need to come up with an entertaining craft for the kids. Just add some markers, paint, construction paper or crayons and you are ready for a fun project.

One of our favorites is paper plate masks. Start by cutting two holes for the eyes, then let your child decorate the mask by drawing on it or gluing yarn as hair, or construction paper shapes as ears etc. They can be animals, favorite cartoon characters or any creature they can come up with.

Of course masks aren’t the only thing you can make with a paper plate. How about turning it into a plate of pretend food?Make a spaghetti dish by gluing yarn in a pile on the plate. Cut out a piece of red paper or fabric to make the tomato sauce. Alphabet cereal and a paper plate can turn into a fun craft that will also help your child practice spelling. Just ask her to turn them into a bowl of alphabet soup and encourage her to spell her name or simple words with the cereal letters.

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- Susanne Myers