Crafts for 15 month old

[texas_matka]

Hi! I really want to start to do crafts with my dd. I guess she is old enough. We are bored with toys and all she would read all day if I wanted to but I think we need some other fun things to do.

Any suggestion on what we can do. Websites? Books? Thanks for you advice

[saphire]

How about pudding finger paints (mix instant vanilla pudding with food coloring), or homemade bubbles. I can only think of drawing things right now. All my other ideas are probably too old.(Like painting wooden beads to string.) Oh-you could make play dough, there are many types too. edible, koolaid(scented), The Super Baby Food Book by Ruth Yaron has tons of ideas, I don't have it right now, my sister borrowed it, otherwise I'd look up some ideas. Have Fun

[beanma]

edible is best at this age. my dd2 (12mo) does some drawing w/ regular crayons (the washable kind wash off on the tongue, too :yuck ) and some painting, but she really wants to eat the paint, too. i have an almost 4 yr old dd, too, and she loves to paint. we've done some real paint w/ baby dd, but it's a challenge to keep it outta the mouth. yogurt paint (same idea as pudding paint) works well. you can color it with natural stuff if you're concerned about chemical food colorings.

[andi_3k]

Cut out cookies go over well and then decorating them. just get kid friendly cutters and not the sharp metal ones.

Edited to add: if you make a hole in the tops you can make them into ornaments for gifts.

[Queen Gwen]

Your local public library should have some books along the lines of Things to Do With Toddlers and Twos (I think that might be an actual title of a book, but I'm not sure...the point is that there are boatloads of books with titles like that). Have the Children's Librarian help find them. These books will have process oriented craft ideas as well as activities. "Process oriented" means that you're focusing on the process of making something, rather than trying to get a specific result...in other words, if your picture of a chicken looks like a truck that's okay.

There's a really cool book about doing art with young children entitled Young At Art. It's about art with kids up to about 6 years of age, and tells what to expect at various stages of development.

Montessori websites and books have excellent ideas of things to do with small kids. Some are crafty, and others are ideas about how kids can participate in the household activities. Oh, there's a set of videos that your library might have...crud, what is the name...it's Montessori-type activites, and the 1st video is of really little kids...okay, dd says the name is Preschool Power.

[JennInSeattle]

I don't have a ton of suggestions but I bought a coloring book from Walmart that's Jo-Jo's circus and has really fat crayons that comes with it. I put Nathan in his high chair with the tray on and give him one crayon at a time. I also put pretzels on his tray so he eats the pretzels and not the crayon (he did bite the tip of the yellow but didn't eat anymore as long as the pretzels were there). He loves to mark up the page and I don't mind if he marks up the tray a bit too.

Then after he's full of pretzels I give him one thing of play-doh. I give him the container, lid and the contents (usually blue). He puts it in the container, takes it out, puts it in, takes it out, puts the lid on, asks for my help getting the lid off. Every few minutes I pull the play-doh apart and show him that it molds or comes apart easily or squishes together. He'll play with that for a good 20 minutes to half an hour before starting to drop it on the floor for fun!

Since we can do both in the kitchen it lets me get dishes, counters, floors done etc. without putting him in front of the TV and he's starting to understand the physical properties of play-doh too which I think is pretty neat!

Well, that's all I can think of at the moment but let me know what you end up with that works for you since our kids are so close in age.

[texas_matka]

Thanks for all the responses. I have the SUper Baby Food Book. We used that to help me make baby food. I forgot about the activity section. I will have to look it up in the morning. I will also head to the library.

She still puts a lot in her mouth even if she is not hungry. For her it is a texture taste thing. Plus whatever will fit and she finds goes in. Even if it does not fit. LOL. I will try the playdough and other suggestions with some natural coloring. I can look some up or if anyone has ideas, LMK. I can always use fruit but is it so expensive now. Organic Stawberries are almost $7 and non-Organic $5. If anyone has any other ideas in general or suggestions on how to add color naturally, please post.

Nita
Married to Steven 3/25/2000
Rozalia 8/23/2003
Baby 5/27/2005