Arts and Crafts with an 18 Month Old

It's never to earlier to start arts and crafts with your child. The sooner you start, the more they will enjoy doing it. Although, to be honest, I think most kids will enjoy it whenever they start because art projects are just so much fun.

One of the biggest reasons I can say I may refrain from doing certain projects, is the mess. It's hard to just set your toddler up with all these different ways to make a gigantic mess for you to clean up. Really, art projects are a great thing for parents and kids. The kids get to enjoy the work, creating, painting, and fun while making something they can look at and be proud to say they made. On the other hand, parents have to endure the mess and learn that it's worth cleaning up to see the happiness the project has brought their child. Not to mention all the great skills they learn from doing it. So we parents do need to learn to let go a little.

I have already done so many wonderful crafts with my 18 months old. I'd love to write about them all but quite frankly, I might as well start a whole separate blog for them all. Which actually sounds like a great idea to keep in mind.

What I would like to recommend is a great book that got me going with lots of ideas to do fun artsy things with my son. It's called "The Everything Toddler Activities Book". It's not just for art either. There are fun games, songs, party ideas, and much more to entertain your little ones. Now, there are a few things inside of it I have learned are no good. My example is the play dough. Some of the recipes in it are just no good so you might have to do a few trail and errors on your own. Perhaps something the author did not do. But you will find plenty of great games your child will get a kick out of. I suggest while reading it that instead of going by her age range, go by what you feel your child is capable of. Many of the activities are said to be good for an 18 months old, but some of them I know my son is not ready for. When children lack some of the skills needed to complete a task they can get very frustrated and therefore discouraged.


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