I'm not an overly "artistic" person but goodness I surprise myself of what I am capable of sometimes. Doing arts and crafts with my toddler is never that high on our things we need to do today list. Unfortunately these days he knows where everything is and he decides when he wants to play it and sometimes I don't have a good enough reason to say no. The mess itself is not actually what scares me but my ability to think about what we can do with any of the materials we have. There is not a lot of choice in the house actually in way of "materials" and dare I say they have been added to the Christmas short list. This past week it seems all the wee man wants to do is gluing, cutting, sticking, attempting to finish a whole bag of cotton balls making various sized sheep (what else do you do with cotton balls?) and yes GLITTER! The capability of the mess involved here might have scared me a little bit. I faced my fear and like with most unknowns I asked my friend Google "Glitter pictures for toddlers" and got this
Glitter shapes or animals
Material:
construction paper
scissors
glue sticks
glitter and confetti
small box with lid or small container
rubber bands
wax paper
Cut out shapes or animals from the construction paper. If you teaching your toddler shapes, then use shapes. If you teaching them animals, then use animals. This is fun and can be a great learning tool.
Give your toddler the shapes and a glue stick. Help them cover both sides of the shapes with glue.
Place one at a time in the box. Add some glitter and confetti and seal the box or container with the rubber band.
Hand the box to your toddler and both of you count to ten while he is shaking the box.
Lay out wax paper on the counter. open the box and show your toddler what they made. Lay on the wax paper so it can dry.
Place a new one in the box and start the process over.
So an impromptu session with glitter worked out quite well in the end and it's something I have actually chosen to do with him again! *gives myself a nice pat on the shoulder* One of the best bits was probably running around the house looking for shapes I could use to trace and cut out. Apologies though for picture quality but I am yet to master the skill of doing arts and crafts with a toddler and take pictures at the same time.
These look a lot of fun x
ReplyDeleteI like the clever idea of glitter in the box and shaking!!! Otherwise it gets everywhere!
ReplyDeleteI love glitter! I know it's messy but your house looks so sparkly afterwards! Love the idea of shaking the box. Bob and I will have to try that. x
ReplyDelete*Shudder* glitter! My 3 yo loves the stuff but I tend to find it in my hair, between my toes... and everywhere else afterwards! Good fun though, as long as you have a hoover!
ReplyDeleteThey are fascinated with glitter aren't they? I spent several days looking like a disco ball a few weeks ago when helping out at my children's school! A great craft activity! :)
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