Preschooler friendly type crafts..?

[DreamSpell333]

I want to get hannah into doing more fun activitys and less television during the day. What are some fun crafts we can do together? Any books,websites you know of for ideas/crafts? I remember in my highschool child ed class making roses of out coffee filters and tye dying them.We got to run our own daycare with the help of our teachers. I think we'll do a craft for each season and holidays now too.

[Tanya]

My daughter is 3, so I know your boat....
I got a lot of ideas from the libary. and ABout.com is pretty good.
Here are some things we do....

1. We bake cookies or muffins at LEAST once a week. She stirs and can do drop cookies and use the cookie cutters. She's very proud to take them to daycare and share them.

2. I bought a bucket of sidewalk chalk,.. you can free draw... and she loves me outlining her and visa versa. A game you can do is draw some colored shapes all over the area (Our front porch is paved) then say "Hop like a kangaroo to the yellow triangle.." "Go like an elephant to the pink circle"
She loved it, it tired her out and she was working on colors and shapes and animal sounds and movements.

3. Limbo....Get a wrapping paper tube, glitter glue, stickers and any other random art supplies and set the kid to decorating it, then crank up some fun music and do the limbo....

4. Balloons. Blow up a few and challenge them to keep them up in the air at once

5. I keep a box of old shoes, hats, bathrobes, party hats, silly glasses, ugly necklances...etc... from which she does "dress up fashion shoes"

6. Bubbles. You blow, kidd chases and knocks down... loads of fun (especailly when a dog gets into it) and again... tires the kid.

7. Make perfume. I let my girl explore the garden and pick things she likes the smell of. We take it in, mashi it and place it in a small bottle with vodka or anyother clear high proof alcohol. Let steep several days then pour through a coffe filter.

8. Fall Leaf stained glass: Pick pretty leaves then place between 2 sheets of waxed paper. Iron between towels.

9. Crayon stained glass: Similar to 8 place shaves of crayons between waxed papers.

10. Paper dyeing (a good presnet for grandmas) cut drawing paper into stationary sized pieces. Dip in cups of water and food coloring.. the paper wicks up the dye. Let dry and iron. I like to fold them so you get tie dye patterns.

11. Playdough.. recipes abound on the internet... I personally HATE playdough .. and do it only when begged.

12. Fishing box. Get a small box (shoe box) and have kid decorate it like it's the ocean. then cut out of pretty pictures (or old artwork)into fish shapes. Slip a steel paper clip on each fish and put in box. Make a fishing rod out of a bit or dowel or bamboo, string(dental floss) and tie a fridge magnet on the end... it seems dumb but my daughter LOVES this.

13. Cut out pictures from magaines and cut them in half. Paste onto index cards to create your own 'matching game'

14. gather shells or pretty peppbles and use grout to apply them to terracotta flower pots (another good grandma gift)

15. start some seeds... my daughter loves helping in the garden and even is getting to be a good little weeder

16. Collages.. we recently did one about the days of the week and what we do on each day.

17. Shakers. Take 2 plastic cups, add a small amount of rice/noodles/ anything else small and dry. Tape cups end to end. decorate. Put on the music......

18. Beading... mine can use a large yarn needle and a piece of string. You can use dry pasta as well as beads/

19 Create a pinyata. Blow up a big ballown, Cover with ripped newspaper dipped in a slurry or flour and water. Add only 1 -2 layers a day. After 6-10 layers you will have a hard paper mache figure. Decorate up with crepe paper... fish are easy from there, or get more creative... peacocks, donkeys... ghoasts are nice and easy for Halloween.

Can you tell I hate TV?

[KimberSly]

Wow... I don't have kids and I'm still impressed by that list. :lol:

[Lunar Raven]

Wow... I don't have kids and I'm still impressed by that list. :lol:

Me too. When I read that, I was thinking "wow, I wish I did all that as a kid :("..lol! :)

[Tanya]

LOL you are making me feel like I'm not a LAZY mom... which I AM.

one last one... its seems stupid.. but again.. strangely entertaining... I give my daughter a tupperware bowl of water and a paint brush and she paints the porch or outside walls with water... goddess knows why it ammuses her but it does

oh and.... you can cut up cheapy dish sponges into shapes to do stamping with paint...

[Chesna]

My daughter loves to chase bubbles..and also tries to catchthem on the wand!! Soo much fun.
To keep your child from watching to much TV..limit it. Set a time limit and when it is done..tv off..time for another activity...we do this with weekend cartoons..she gets towatch only a few and then we switch it and tell her its time to play. She then gets puzzles, or her dollies and start her creative play.

Other fun ideas:
* sock puppets..hold a play
* letter or number flashcards..i use them with food as correct answer treats...do it during snack time and it serves two purposes

Chesna

[DreamSpell333]

Thanks for all the idea's! :) I'll have to try some of them :) Maybe even go down the list :D
She was talking about making puppets out of brown paper bags. I have to pick up some supplies when my husband gets paid. We dont have markers,glue,etc.
I make playdough for Hannah every once and awhile. I use koolaid instead of food coloring. I also have a non cook recipe. It does make a mess,so I dont like making it often either.
Hannah loves playing with bubbles,and chalk.
With fall here now,we are definitely going to do the leaf stain glass.

[Ceres]

one last one... its seems stupid.. but again.. strangely entertaining... I give my daughter a tupperware bowl of water and a paint brush and she paints the porch or outside walls with water... goddess knows why it ammuses her but it does



Every one of my kids loved to do this too! The evaporation of the water was half the fun, too. I think at that age they like to make art that disappears like doing that or writing on a chalkboard or using a dry erase board. For kids who are perfectionist types, I think the appeal is that mistakes arent permanent.

[Ceres]

Preschoolers love to have certain activities for certain days of the week as well. Like have a baking day and a day of the week you go to the library and another day you go out for a special treat and one day thats for shopping.

[DreamSpell333]

Preschoolers love to have certain activities for certain days of the week as well. Like have a baking day and a day of the week you go to the library and another day you go out for a special treat and one day thats for shopping.

She and I are talking about having a few days where she gets to do certain things as well.
She watches pbs sprout,and they have a sprout diner with recipes,so we are going to pick a recipe every week and she can help me make it.
Today she made lunch for all of us. We had leftover sauce and mozzerella cheese,so she made Toast pizza.. I think english muffins would have been better,but they came out good and she was very proud of herself! :)
My backs been bothering me today,so she has been helping me . She helped unload the dishwasher,wash the sink out,clean the counters,table,and dust. My back feels alittle better.
She was also eating an apple and told me to take a couple bites and that it would make my back better haha :)
I also want her to start learning to write her letters. She knows the alphabet and can write some letters,but doesnt know them all. I want to pick up some flash cards also. :)

[Cat]

I hate kid crafts. But they are a good idea. I take my daughter to a few classes which involve making crafts, and I let that be that.

We do draw and blow/chase/pop bubbles.

I have a book called Teach Me Mommy which is a preschool level homeschool book, which has tons of crafts in it. One for each lesson. Which is one reason I don't use it. But it IS a very good book, good attitude, very organized, I do recommend it. If you will do crafts. I found it online, so if you Google the title you should find the book and cd.

[Ceres]

I want to get hannah into doing more fun activitys and less television during the day.


I just reread this post and realized something. You do realize that the reason you are supposed to turn the TV off is so that the kids dont forget how to play, on their own, without you entertaining them?

Not that its a bad thing to do stuff with them - far from it! Its just good for their brain and development for them to spend a great deal of time inside their own heads, making up games, acting out scenes and imagining themselves doing things.

[DreamSpell333]

I just reread this post and realized something. You do realize that the reason you are supposed to turn the TV off is so that the kids dont forget how to play, on their own, without you entertaining them?

Not that its a bad thing to do stuff with them - far from it! Its just good for their brain and development for them to spend a great deal of time inside their own heads, making up games, acting out scenes and imagining themselves doing things.


Yea , she does play on her own too. I just want to find a craft we can do once a week or so.
She has a bunch of ponies and a play castle that she plays with on her own in her room. Plays with her dolls,etc. :)
I was looking online for activitys and found this site :
http://www.learningpage.com/
It has some Pre-K activitys like connect the dots,and coloring pages etc. Letter trace,and numbers. Also autumn harvest pages where she colors them in,cuts them out and pastes them onto a cornucopia.

[kapora]

I just reread this post and realized something. You do realize that the reason you are supposed to turn the TV off is so that the kids dont forget how to play, on their own, without you entertaining them?

Not that its a bad thing to do stuff with them - far from it! Its just good for their brain and development for them to spend a great deal of time inside their own heads, making up games, acting out scenes and imagining themselves doing things.



I think TV is ruining kid's imaginations these days. While there are some good shows I think too many kids need TV to be entertained. I don't have any kids but my mom has had a home daycare for 20 years and never allowed TV in the day care room. The sad part is the last two kids she had before she retired would play the TV game. They would sit and stare at the wall and pretend to be watching TV or playing video games. While this is sort of imaginative I remember previous daycare kids pretending to be characters from movies and TV but they actually played and made things up. These other two would just sit there and not want to do puzzles or crafts or anything.

[Tanya]

Usually I allow 1 hour of TV per day. Often my daughter asks to put it on and I suggest other activities and she forgets about it. Its clear from daycare she watches it there, and I can't control that... :(
I agree with Radikal, I hate seeing Moms "entertaining" there kids. I enjoy spending time with mine 'doing stuff' but I DO expect her to do her own thing... read books, play with the animals, dress up, plat with her tpys, play in the sand box, do puzzles, paint or draw or build with her blocks and legos.

Still.. as her brother is 11 years older than her, she is not as independent as I was with a sister only 12 months my junior.

[Rhianna813]

Usually I allow 1 hour of TV per day. Often my daughter asks to put it on and I suggest other activities and she forgets about it. Its clear from daycare she watches it there, and I can't control that... :(
I agree with Radikal, I hate seeing Moms "entertaining" there kids. I enjoy spending time with mine 'doing stuff' but I DO expect her to do her own thing... read books, play with the animals, dress up, plat with her tpys, play in the sand box, do puzzles, paint or draw or build with her blocks and legos.

Still.. as her brother is 11 years older than her, she is not as independent as I was with a sister only 12 months my junior.

Agreed and great post! If I spent all my time entertaining DS I would get nothing done around the house. I am discovering more just how fun, practical and educating it is to have DS help me with chores around the house LOL If he is not into it - then that's a great time to pull out all the tupperware and weird shaped utensils (wisk, pasta scoop, funnel) and let him imagine all on his own.

I have an idea for "mad scientist" play time, but it would probably be best to do this outside. Just get some various containers - clear would be ideal- and fill them up with stuff like rice, dry beans, sand, dirt, pasta, and liquidy stuff too like water (with perhaps a bit of food colouring added), ice, and something goopy. And then let him just go at it with the pouring, mixing and creating. And when it's over - get out the hose!

[Ceres]

I have an idea for "mad scientist" play time, but it would probably be best to do this outside. Just get some various containers - clear would be ideal- and fill them up with stuff like rice, dry beans, sand, dirt, pasta, and liquidy stuff too like water (with perhaps a bit of food colouring added), ice, and something goopy. And then let him just go at it with the pouring, mixing and creating. And when it's over - get out the hose!

This is a really great idea!

[Tanya]

its getting hot here. We made popsicles.... Juice, diet lemonade, cool little tuperware(or ice cube trays) and plastic spoons. Vivi loved "doing her own cooking"