activities and craft ideas for 3 yo

[COgirl19]

I think my 3yo gets bored at home sometimes. We have a newborn so getting out and about isn't always possible. What ideas for some crafts and activities for a 3yo can you all suggest to help keep her occupied. We don't do TV so that isn't an option.

[ollyoxenfree]

Well, it's really tough to make suggestions without a little more information about what her interests are .

The Craft Crow has lots of ideas and tutorials.

HTH

[Purplegal]

play dough

coloring

cutting- DD could spend hours cutting shapes out with her scissors..

gluing projects....a favorite here is getting magazines and cutting out in themes...like she finds anything with the color purple and cuts them out and glues them to a little paper book she made...keeps her busy for a long time!

puzzles

string and beads...I found the bigger beads for small hands (Melissa and Doug) and she loves making different patterns.

A big favorite is butcher paper...I roll it out and she LOVES having such a huge canvas to color on...she also loves when she lays down and I trace her body, and she spends lots of time coloring her face and clothes, hair, etc.

HTH!

[reezley]

Here are a few things that my kids have liked - keeps a 3yo occupied!

- Kids' scissors, magazine or catalog pages or colored paper. After she has some shapes, you can add a gluestick and another piece of paper to make a collage!

- Stand her at the sink with the water dribbling and some cups and things to play with water

- a dish or bowl with cornstarch and a little water, the kid mixes them and it turns to goo of different textures. Easy to clean up.

- Playdoh and tools/cutters!

- Sticker activity books

- resting with a nice story CD

[lovesea]

My ds keeps himself occupied for ages with scissors, glue, cellotape and paper. He usually throws in a few other random items (straws, wool, leaves, small shells). Any time I need to do something, I can rely on the paper, scissors and glue

[JudiAU]

DS is almost always drawn to a fresh sheet of paper. I often clean up the art table at night and put on something specific. He get something else if he wants but he usually plays with what I put out. Current favorites are beeswax crayons, oil pastels, watercolors from a disc, real watercolors for wet-on-wet, "spin art" junky toy thing that he loves, finger paints, tempura paints, play dough, things to make an impression with, lined paper to copy words on to, stickers, "cutting," etc. And that is without my input like lets take the watercolors from yesterday and make them into a scene from a book.

I'd also try and kind some novelities on hand, to give yourself some guaranteed piece some days. I'd have a "new art" or some little new duplo pieces from a lot from ebay or three pieces of train track or whatever. And library books all the time. And stickers.

[LaughingHyena]

Playdough is a big hit here and by varying what things we get out with it it stays "new"

some things DS enjoys are
my garlic press, plastic scissors, plastic cutlery, cookie cutters, potato masher, duplo bricks, bottle tops. Anything you can press into it to make a pattern.

cutting and sticking is another big one. We've just got a few craft punches which make interesting shapes and he loves those (I've kept a few for stocking fillers)

Threading cheerios onto a shoelace to make edible necklaces.

Den making, just a blanket over the back of a couple of chairs keeps him happy. Snacks on his toy kitchen dishes make this even better.

Hide the teddy, I hide a small teddy and he has to find it. This was one I used to do a lot with DD when DS was little. I could hide a few toys then sit down to nurse DS while she went round the room finding them.

I also remember sitting nursing while singing songs with lots of actions for DD to dane around and get out some energy.

[MAMom]

Love the Artful Parent blog, which always has tons of great ideas.

One thing I did for DS when DD was a baby was set up a tray (with sides) with salt and beans, and some little cars/trucks he could load and drive through. Easier to clean up inside than sand & would keep him entertained for a good hour.

Another idea is making colored ice cubes with food coloring to play with a net in a bin or sink filled with water (or tub, though that can get very colorful!).

Making leaf rubbings with crayons is on my list to do with DD soon.

[wiggleworm]

A few sites we enjoy are:

http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/
http://www.artistshelpingchildren.org/

This site also has neat ideas for 2 & 3 year olds:

http://teaching2and3yearolds.blogspot.com/