Our extra time social distancing and sheltering down has brought a big need for new activities and lots of creativity. We’ve tried to use the time wisely to make ahead some Easter cards and crafts and send fun mail to our family and friends. So, what have we been up to and how could you recreate the ideas with your own toddler or preschooler?
Easter Cards and Crafts Ideas with a Toddler
- Finger Painting
- work on shapes and decorate eggs
- paint with cars, golf balls or rocks
- color on the inside of pantry boxes like pudding, pasta, cake mixes – open up the inside of the box and let you
- use stickers and decals that come in the mail from random places – magazine offers, kids pamphlet offers
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Finger painting – I just purchased finger paints online. They came in a set of 30 colors and we have used them for all kinds of things. I used Canva to design a postcard and then took that design into Word and put for on a sheet. This way when Little Man works on one page, he is actually working on 4 cards at once. I try to put him in his high chair for this project so the paint and his sweet little hands are more contained.
Work on shapes while decorating eggs – cut shapes out of random pieces of trash mail or recycled items. You could also cut them out of tissue paper or wrapping paper and glue them on to egg shapes. When designing my egg cards, I picked a design with circles and squares so I could tell him to color the circles a certain color or the squares.
Paint with found objects – I found some canvases in my craft tub in the garage and we used some of the small cars in his toy bin and drove them through the finger paint. This could be done on wooden or canvas frames or cardstock. It was fun for him to work on dexterity and hand-eye coordination. We used the same finger paint, but you could use tempra/washable paint and just put the cars in the dishwasher. Growing up, one of my favorite crafts was to put a paper in the bottom of a box or soda casing and put a few drops of paint on my paper and roll a golf ball around. It would drag streaks across the paper and mix colors as it rolled.
Color on the inside of boxes – I’m pretty sure I’m confusing the mess out of my husband, but we have been pulling every pantry box out of the recycling bin as we empty them. Pasta, pancake mix, pudding, the bottom of the case of water. All of these thick paper boxes have made for perfect coloring and marker canvases. I let him color all over the page, sometimes returning in multiple sessions. Then, I cut the boxes into postcard size and use a blank mailing label to address the back. I add one of our return mail labels and a stamp and off they go – fun mail on the back of Kodiak baking mix!
Use stickers and random decals that come in the mail – I have depleted my sticker supply and its not exactly the thing you can add to your weekly grocery pick up. So, I’ve saved a few magazine selection stickers and those fun incentive stickers you get from random non-profits in the mail. Next, we might use up some of those random mailing labels that I get. But, none the less they are stickers and kids love stickers and they have been a bonus adornment to our fun mail.
Using extra things around the house for crafts with toddlers
Making crafts with toddlers doesn’t have to be over complicated. And frankly, it shouldn’t be. They want to have fun and explore something new but it can’t take too long and the expectation can’t be too high. Sometimes, you just have to take the things you already have around your house and look at them with a new lens.
At home, we will often work several days on one picture to get it just where we want it to share with others. It might take us 3 or 4 sessions of coloring to get a full-page completed. For our Easter egg project, we had to do finger painting in 4 different sessions to get all the pages painted with more than one color.
For a long time, my Little Man’s favorite things to “kahlor” with were the pens in the pencil cup on the counter. Whether they colored more than black ink, several of them were different colors and as we practiced orange, green, red, purple, he wanted to be where I was, sitting at the counter, drawing and writing on any piece of paper he could find.
I keep a basket on our shelf of bins that is full of coloring books, markers, crayons, and colored pencils. He knows where they are, but they are just out of reach, even on his tippy toes. But, usually once in the morning and once in the afternoon, he comes over and wants to “kahlor”. We will color a new page in a Dollar Store magazine, or the back of an envelope that I pull from the recycle bin. More often than not, he wants to be where I am “working” and doing projects like he sees his mommy work on.
Get creative, if I can find inspiration in the recycle bin, look in those tubs you have under your bed or in the garage. What is already laying around your house that your kid would find so much fun? Keep in mind projects you could drop off on the porch of a neighbor or friend versus mailing to family in another town or state.
How can I use craft time as a learning activity for my toddler?
Toddlers and preschoolers are learning so much about the world around them and it seems that every day they are using more words, completing more thought processes, remembering more patterns of behavior, and recognizing and interacting more with the world around them. We have been practicing colors a lot since Christmas and have mastered the words and colors that go together.
Our next focus is on counting and shapes. While we learn these new concepts, we continue to talk about what he knows – colors, animals, sounds, following directions, and object recognition.
- shapes – draw shapes and have them color in the shape that you call out – or use found objects around your home to let them see shapes in action. Cut shapes out of the sides of a cardboard box and let them trace the objects
- colors – this is a repetition project all-around – mention colors in everything you do and see around your house, in the car, at the store, or exploring nature
- characters – for us right now, this is a lot of Disney characters, but correcting them when they call something like Daniel Tiger by “roar” teaches them word association and how to put words together in a sentence
- animals – for a long time my Little Man has just called animals by the sound they make – “ooo ahah” or “meow” – we are working hard on recognizing those as “monkey” and “cat” and that they make those sounds, but that is not their name
- relationships – two-year-olds start putting together people in family groups and in relationship to each other – so play off this concept and draw families, or when you talk about a person you will send your mail to, ask who else lives at their house (be prepared they may know the dogs better than the humans)
- letters – while letters are more of a three-year-old concept, its fun to start drawing the letters that make up their name and helping them to work on recognition. One easy way to do this is by looking at the packaging on food items in your pantry or in magazines
- numbers – counting and number recognition can come by counting steps on the sidewalk or found objects around them. They can use a bingo marker to make dots on a paper or to make homemade dice to
- reading readiness – place projects on the left for them to work left to write
- writing skills – teach them how to hold a pencil, but learning how to hold a marker, colored pencil, paintbrush or crayon
Tips for doing crafts with toddlers
- Don’t expect too much (or perfection) – that’s the point of enjoying crafts made by toddlers
- Keep it simple – just try one thing at a time and come back to repeat it if their attention wains
- plan ahead and have all your supplies together – get your art station set up before you start that way you are just spending your time together creating
- supervise every step and don’t leave sharp objects laying nearby – my little always loves to grab the scissors or a knife if I leave it on the table – and, finger painting quickly turned to body and wall painting when I turned my back for a quick minute
- try new things – explore textures, colors, art tools, and places that you make art – don’t feel like every step has to be in control
- let them get messy – don’t wear your favorite (or most expensive) clothes for craft time
- use washable supplies – whether its paint or markers, always choose a washable medium to make clean up easier
- If they aren’t feeling it, try again later – sometimes doing art too close to nap time or after another tiring activity just invites the meltdown to show up early. Offer grace and come back to the project later
- Make art time a special time where they get to use new supplies and have access to a special area set up just for them
So, what will it be? Are you inspired to make some fun mail for your family?? Let’s spread the cheer, teach our kids something new, and get a little messy!
Other Easter Ideas from bigpittstop
- Holy Week Crafts and Activities for Preschoolers
- Easter Cards and Crafts with Toddlers – another fun activity that is not necessarily Biblically based
- Easter Basket ideas for kids and adults that include more than candy
- Easter Basket Ideas for Preschoolers – work great for stocking stuffers, too!
- Easter Resources – Lessons and Learning for the Lenten season
- Candy Bar Cake would be a great treat for an Easter Menu, just use Peeps, creme eggs, or other seasonal candies and sprinkles to make it festive
- What’s in my Basket: Easter Lesson for Teens – this lesson is great for Sunday School, small groups, classroom, or a gathering before a family meal.
- DIY Tie-Dye Towels are a great Easter Basket filler and a fun activity when cousins are together.
- Little Hammies – ham slider sandwiches that are great with leftover Easter Ham
- Egg Beaters Breakfast Casserole – maybe Easter Brunch is more your thing – this casserole makes it so easy that you can use something else to take up all your time – like an egg hunt!
- Pineapple Casserole – this is a great side dish for your Easter lunch or brunch spread.
- Springtime Cold and Fruity Salads – my grandmother’s recipes that we love in spring and summer
- Bunny Cake – an easy old family tradition that is fun year after
- Activities to do while you are stuck at home
Some of our favorite products from Amazon for Toddler projects
