Thanksgiving Kid Craft

Charlotte and I made a few of these Thanksgiving marble paintings to send to her west coast family members.* Since they only get to see her a few times a year in person (though more over Skype), I try to keep them feeling not as far away by sending art projects around the various holidays.

I printed and cut out the letters to spell "thanks," lightly glued them to the cardstock with a glue stick, put the paper into a shipping box and we were off. Once the marbles were dipped in the paint and inside the box, we taped it up and shook, shook, shook.

Let it dry, peel off the letters, punch some holes, tie the ribbon and voila. One Thanksgiving picture to hang on the fridge, the wall, a door knob, etc.

It was a great 2 year old project - I was able to prepare plenty of it ahead of time and just leave the fun stuff to her. After we did two of them, she hit her limit, but that was fine because two were all we needed. 



* Apologies for the poor photo quality, I snapped this picture with my cell phone and forgot to get a better picture with the camera before I packed them up for shipping.

**This post was featured on Craft Gossip - thanks so much!**

 

Toddler Art Tip

Charlotte loves art of any kind - coloring, painting, drawing, etc. But toddler art is an inherently messy process, even if it just means picking up tons of crayons off the floor.

From the time she started drawing and painting we've always used the same method and it's worked amazingly well to mitigate the mess: Use a tray.

Years ago I bought B a sushi set for Christmas and it came with this black wooden tray. It works great to have the paper and crayons portable from room to room, contained within the tray, not sliding of the table, etc.

Maybe I find the benefits of this more helpful because of our small house - art needs to occur in small spaces near things that I don't want to be covered in paint. But regardless of house size, it works incredibly well. Go buy ye a tray.

 

Toddler Tips - Bathtub Watercolors

It's been raining for a few days here so I needed some way to entertain the little lady before naptime to ensure that it was a long one. Enter bathtub watercolors. The girl LOVES to paint, but let's face it, it's a messy and kind of stressful experience when you hand paints to a not-yet-two-year-old.

This was genius though. The bathtub is my new favorite parenting tool. She played in there for quite a while, painting the tub, her diaper, her face, etc. And when it was over, all the mess was contained and the watercolors washed away.

I now think all toddler activities, save for sleeping, should occur in our tub.