Leaf Letters

Here's a fun way to work on letter recognition with toddlers while using nature...Leaf Letters!

Five Little "Thumbkin" craft

Fall is one of the funnest times to do crafts with kids...the possibilities are endless! Have your kids make a Five Little Thumbkin craft, and the plus side is that it's so easy to customize to your kids' age and ability level.

Parent/Child hand print sun craft

I've learned that crafting with little ones is much more fun if I get to craft to...so when I saw an idea to make a sun out of my child's hand prints, I decided to add my hand prints too :).

Fruity Cereal Rainbow

I'm pulling out all the crafts I did when my boys were little to entertain my 3 year old daughter, and it's so fun comparing how different they are! I'm so glad I have this archive of crafts to pull up when she says it's time to do a craft. Recently we made a fruity cereal rainbow and she loved it.

Rainbow Mosaic

Lately, I've been re-doing a lot of the crafts I had done with my boys...but this time with my 3 year old daughter. It's fun to see how the crafts end up with the difference in personality and preferences. She loves rainbows and requested we make a rainbow craft, so we created our own rainbow mosaic.

Mom Hack: cotton swab paintbrushes

Sometimes, the worst part of crafting with kids is the clean-up afterwards. This past summer, when we were painting rocks like crazy, I was so excited when I realized that cotton swabs work perfectly for little paintbrushes!

I cut them in half, and they're the perfect size for my 3 year old to hold. When we're all done painting, they go straight in the trash and I don't have to wash any paint brushes. Win!

I'll be linking up to Tip Me Tuesday at Tip Junkie.

Fall Craft: Q-Tip Fall Tree

My 3 year old loves craft time! The other day we painted fall trees with Q-tips, and she begged to paint more and more.

I love using Q-tips as paint brushes because they are super cheap, and when cut in half, they are the perfect size for little hands to hold.

5 Little Pumpkins Craft

My daughter fell in love with the book "5 Little Pumpkins" and asked me to read it to her again...and again...and again! So, I knew that this 5 Little Pumpkins Crafts would be perfect for her.

All you need is: construction paper (black, orange, brown, yellow), or craft foam, Popsicle sticks, glue sticks, and a toddler to help :).

Rockin' Out this Summer!

Our city is going crazy over this new rock game...hiding and finding painted rocks!

In the collage above, the top two pictures are rocks we found, and the bottom two are rocks we painted and hid. The rules are simple:

• On the back of the rock, write the hashtag for your city. Check on Facebook to see if there's a group already, or start your own.
• Hide your rocks around town.
• If you find a rock, take a selfie or picture of it and post it to the group Facebook page.
• You can leave the rock, re-hide the rock somewhere else, or keep it. If you keep it, you have to replace it with a different painted rock.

In our community people of all ages are getting involved. It's so much fun finding rocks and there's a huge variety from talented artists, to rocks clearly painted by 2 year olds. My kids have spent hours painting, hiding and hunting for rocks.

I've read that it started as the Kindness Rocks Project, and has spread throughout the country. Get involved while your kids are out of school and see how much fun it is!

Footprint Carrot for Easter

A perfect Easter craft for little ones who are too little to do handprint crafts is this adorable footprint carrot!

Just put baby's foot in orange paint and "stamp" it onto paper or wood. Then draw or paint the green leaves and you're done! Footprint crafts are the perfect way to look back later and see how tiny your kids really were.

We made an Easter card for my aunt, and this was on the front.

Thank you Parenting for the cute idea!

Watercolor Valentine's Card

Little princess loves to do crafts while her big brothers are at school, so one day we made a Valentine's card.

Paper Plate Snowman

We finally got some snow recently and my 2 year old had so much fun sledding! Sadly, it was not snowman snow, so she has yet to experience making a snowman, but we got creative and made a paper plate snowman inside.

All you need to make your snowman is a paper plate, black construction paper, pom poms, orange foam or construction paper, and white school glue.

I cut out all the shapes we needed and put some glue on the plate...

Then she placed all of the pieces on the glue dots. You could definitely be more adventurous and let your toddler pour the glue themselves or place the pieces wherever they want, but this was fun for both of us so I'll call it a win.

Hand Print Snowman Ornament

I've seen the ornaments that have children's hand prints turned into snowmen for years and just barely made a hand print snowman ornament with my 2 year old. I love it!

Toddler Craft: Turkey

My husband loves to encourage our 2 year old to say "gobble gobble" whenever I call her a turkey (which tends to happen a lot). It's so darn cute, and often puts me in a better mood, because a toddler saying "gobble gobble" is just about the cutest thing in the world. So, a turkey craft is perfect for any little turkey in your life!

All you need is: construction paper, glue, scissors, and googly eyes.

Toddler Fun: Cotton-Ball Ghost

My daughter has been running around saying something to the effect of aw-oooo, but it took me forever to figure out that she was making a ghost sound! Now that Halloween's almost here, we've started crafting in full-swing and she adored making this cotton-ball ghost recently!

Just cut out a ghost from paper or card-stock and put some glue on it (or if you're feeling brave, let them spread the glue). Let your toddler place the cotton ball's to their heart's content.

Once the cotton balls have dried in place, you can cut out some black eyes and have them glue those on too!

My daughter loves carrying her ghost around with her and is SO PROUD of it! I hope your little one loves it too.

Happy Halloween!
PS Thanks Thriving Home for the fun idea.

Toddler Fun: Shape Game

We are learning about shapes constantly right now and my 2 year old insists on me drawing them whenever there's a crayon nearby, so I thought she would enjoy this little shape game I quickly made up:

Just cut out multiple shapes from construction paper and trace them onto a white piece of paper. We stuck with circles, triangles and squares.

Toddler Fun: Watercolor Resist Painting

Now that my boys are in school, my toddler and I are always looking for stuff to do to keep entertained. One day we decided to try watercolors, with a twist...a bit of watercolor resist art!

Toddler Bird Feeders

Here's a fun, simple project for your toddler to make: a bird feeder!