Tag Archives: toddler crafts

markers

Posted on November 27, 2012 | Leave a comment

Unfortunately, we were all sick on and off over the long Thanksgiving weekend. However, that didn’t stop me from getting a few things done, like…getting presents wrapped and putting up the xmas tree!

(I didn’t put the presents under the tree because I figured that with 5 animals, they’d be safer tucked into the entertainment center.)

We also bought a couple of super cheap (25 cents and 50 cents after a 50% discount) wooden ornaments from Hobby Lobby, and had Jonah color them.

Jonah is fairly new to coloring with markers, but they’ve been working on it in OT and I’m really proud of how well he’s doing. He’s gotten way more tolerant of the markers getting on his skin than he was initially.

And the ornaments turned out really cute. :)

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craft: wave bottle

Posted on September 10, 2011 | Leave a comment

I am always looking for craft/activity ideas to make for or with Jonah. I found this one in a book we have full of toddler activities.

Ingredients:

-Clean, empty soda bottle (book said 16 oz, mine was 20)
-Food coloring
-Water
-Baby Oil
-Glitter, beads, sequins, etc. (optional)

Making the wave bottle is super simple. Fill the soda bottle about 1/3 full with water. Then put in a couple drops of food coloring, and whatever else you want to put in. I have had these little red heart glittery sequin-y confetti things FOREVER (like, probably 10 years at least — does that make me some kind of craft hoarder?) and have never been able to figure out anything good to do with them. Well, I think this is the perfect use. Next, fill the bottle the rest of the way with baby oil. I used pretty much the whole bottle, bringing the total cost of this craft to $1.98. Put some strong glue on the inside of the lid and screw it on. That’s it!  The water looks like waves crashing around when you shake the bottle.

Jonah was really intrigued by the wave bottle.  I love crafts like this. It was really cheap and really easy, and took less than 5 minutes to make. Now I’m on the lookout for my next crafty activity!

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craft: pom pom push

Posted on August 31, 2011 | Leave a comment

I finally got around to making the other activity I’d had in mind for Jonah.  I found the idea here (via Pinterest).

I used a tupperware container I already had, and decided to color each hole a different color, since Jonah is old enough to know his colors pretty well.  I used permanent markers to color around each hole.  The purple was a little off, but most of the colors matched pretty closely.  I used a silver sharpie for white.

I bought a thing of pom poms at Wal-Mart for $3.  There were 100 in the pack.  This is about half of them.  Which is good because if we lose some, which we’re bound to, I’ll have replacements.

I showed Jonah how to push the pom poms through the holes, and he automatically started matching the colors.  He’s a smart one.

I made the holes small enough that it’s a bit of a challenge for him to push the pom poms through. I was hoping this wouldn’t frustrate him, and so far, it hasn’t.

I made this a couple of days ago, and he has brought it to me many times since then for me to open it up and empty out the pom poms.  So this is definitely a success!

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craft: colored rice

Posted on August 21, 2011 | Leave a comment

I’ve been looking for some cheap* craft-type activities to make for Jonah to play with.  We did the toddler crayons, and that was fun, but right not he’s not really into coloring.  So I found this link through Pinterest showing how to color rice, which I thought would be perfect.  Jonah’s therapist said that he really liked the bucket of dry macaroni that she had, and it seemed like the same concept.

Turns out, he really likes it a lot.  We’ve gotten it out a few times, and he gets almost mesmerized by it.  I put some plastic dinosaurs in there for him to find, and a few scooping tools.  I do have to get out the broom after, but it’s not too messy.  I tried laying down a sheet to catch any stray rice the first time (as you can see in the pictures), but then he just wants to put it over his head and play peek-a-boo.  :)

*This turned out to be not that cheap, really.  I got a 20 lb bag of rice, the tupperware, and the food coloring, and the rice was like $11 by itself.  Oh, well.  The next craft I have planned really is cheap.

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craft: toddler-friendly crayons

Posted on June 24, 2011 | 4 Comments

Ever since Jonah first began coloring, I’ve been collecting the many broken pieces in a snack bag.  We’ve tried both the regular-sized crayons and the thicker ones, but it doesn’t matter.  They all get broken.  Once the bag got full, I decided we needed to melt them down to make new crayons!  Yesterday, we went to a thrift store right down the street and got a mini muffin tin for 75 cents.

The amount of pieces I had ended up being pretty much perfect.

Here are most of the wrappers.  When I started tearing the wrappers off, I thought, “I don’t know what people are complaining about!  This isn’t so hard.”  By the time I was halfway through, I wanted to tear out my hair.  I think I’ll have crayon under my fingernails for a few days.

Jonah played patiently while I worked.

Then we had some cuddle time while they baked.  This boy has been very cuddly lately.

The directions I followed said to put them in the freezer to cool and harden, which I did.  But mine ended up cracking.  Not sure what I did wrong.  Our crayons don’t look quite as pretty as some I’ve seen.  Most of Jonah’s broken ones were darker colors, for some reason.  They still look pretty neat, though.

Jonah wasn’t too sure what to think of them!  But hopefully he’ll like them, because I think (and hope) they’ll be harder to break than regular crayons.

Anyone have any other inexpensive or free toddler-friendly craft ideas?  I love that this one only cost us 75 cents!

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