Crafts with under 2s

[buzzy bee]

Does anyone's under 2s actually take part in crafts?

I find they just all look at me like I'm a loon and then I end up "showing them" how to do it and do most of it myself!

Are there any crafts you suggest for under 2s where they can do it all themselves?

[Velleity]

My five month old watches and sometimes thrusts her hands into various things - glue, paint etc and may smear some onto the paper by chance :laughing: I just let her get on with it - make sure none goes into eyes or mouth and then clean her up afterwards. She seems to enjoy it!

[Mouse]

I have babies joing in crafts as soon as they can sit up in the highchair. I don't do specific activities with them (ie. I wouldn't try making a puppet with them), but I let them loose with paint, glue etc.
For littlest ones, I put a piece of paper on the tray in front of them & pour blobs of paint onto it. I give them a brush or sponge, which they'll sometimes look at with interest, but more often than not, they just rub their hands round in it & spread the paint about.

As they get older, they'll colour, paint & glue. Again, nothing specific, just paper & bits to stick on as they want. Or they have boxes to paint & stick bits on.

I think they key to it is just lettingthem have free reign to do things as they want. Don't give them anything to do that has to be done in a specific way :thumbsup:

[AliceK]

I have babies joing in crafts as soon as they can sit up in the highchair. I don't do specific activities with them (ie. I wouldn't try making a puppet with them), but I let them loose with paint, glue etc.
For littlest ones, I put a piece of paper on the tray in front of them & pour blobs of paint onto it. I give them a brush or sponge, which they'll sometimes look at with interest, but more often than not, they just rub their hands round in it & spread the paint about.

As they get older, they'll colour, paint & glue. Again, nothing specific, just paper & bits to stick on as they want. Or they have boxes to paint & stick bits on.

I think they key to it is just lettingthem have free reign to do things as they want. Don't give them anything to do that has to be done in a specific way :thumbsup:

This is what I do. I have 1 mindee who is not yet 2 and 1 mindee who is just literally 2 and they both love to crayon, paint and the favourite at the moment is gluing and sticking. LO's love to finger paint so just let them get on with it.

xxxx

[buzzy bee]

Thanks for the replies...

This is kinda what I do now - they draw with crayons everyday and chalk in the garden most days too...

I just wondered if I should be doing more organised things with them for different themes - autumn, christmas etc.

[singingcactus]

Little people need to experience free art. They need to be allowed to experiment and do with the medium what they choose. Crafts can be damaging developmentally if very young children are made to do them. To be told there is a right and a wrong way to glue, things etc at such a young age forces them into failing and getting it wrong so much it will rock their confidence and make them very much less likely to want to try when they are of an appropriate age. This resisitance will also transfer to things like writing when they are at school, they will have grown accustomed to 'getting it wrong' with crafts that they will assume they will get it wrong with writing and develop a can't do it attitude. Settings for very young children need to get away from this idea that craft is for little kids.
Just stick to free, open ended art for little people where there is no right or wrong, there is just fun.

[nikki thomson]

Hi, I'm not a crafty person in fact I would go as far as saying I hate it, I cannot cope with the mess no matter how much I try to not let it bother me that there's glitter all over the floor, I look after a 15mth lo who I've had since she was 6mths and I can count on one hand the amount of time i've done arts and crafts, she just picks all the stuff up and throws it on the floor I really can't be doing with it.
I have to say I do tell all perspective parents that art and craft are not my thing but I do lots that other cm don't do like swimming and tumble tots and I've never lost a family because of it, they actually prefer that I go out and do so much with them rather than being stuck in. Xx

[Mouse]

Thanks for the replies...

This is kinda what I do now - they draw with crayons everyday and chalk in the garden most days too...

I just wondered if I should be doing more organised things with them for different themes - autumn, christmas etc.

I would just use different colours, so for autum you can give them brown, orange and red crayons & paint, for christmas reds & greens, perhaps some gold & silver.
If you want to do something a bit different, draw a big leaf on A4 paper, let them colour as they want, then cut the leaf out. They've done something a bit more than simply colouring on paper, but it's still something they can do themselves. Or draw several smaller leaves on a sheet, again let them colour it all as they want (it doesn't matter about keeping to lines at that age, but they're getting the idea of colouring within a shape - all good for emerging pencil control). Cut them out & help the children stick them onto a sheet of card. They have a nice finished product to take home and all the actual coouring & sticking has been done by them.

[Mouse]

Little people need to experience free art. They need to be allowed to experiment and do with the medium what they choose. Crafts can be damaging developmentally if very young children are made to do them. To be told there is a right and a wrong way to glue, things etc at such a young age forces them into failing and getting it wrong so much it will rock their confidence and make them very much less likely to want to try when they are of an appropriate age. This resisitance will also transfer to things like writing when they are at school, they will have grown accustomed to 'getting it wrong' with crafts that they will assume they will get it wrong with writing and develop a can't do it attitude. Settings for very young children need to get away from this idea that craft is for little kids.
Just stick to free, open ended art for little people where there is no right or wrong, there is just fun.

I agree with that.

I used to attend a messy play session where they had lots of craft activities for lo's. I'd just let my mindees do it as they wanted to. Depending on their age, we'd sometimes end up with something that looked like a bit like the example, but more often than not we'd be bringing home lots of bits randomly stuck together. But they'd had fun doing it.
Unfortunately I was not very popular as it was felt I should be sitting with the lo's & guiding them to make the correct finished product! At the end of the session you'd see all these perfectly made things lined up to dry, then the things my mindees had made sticking out like sore thumbs :laughing:
But, the majority of things had actually been made by the mums or other minders. The children had no interest at all and very often weren't even at the table when their crafts were being made :rolleyes:

[jumping j]

I hve 2 20 month olds who love having free time with paint, i put it in trays for them to dip their hands in or small blobs on pieces of paper for them to smudge around.
They also like dropping things onto glue, however I've stopped using food like pasta, lentils, rice etc. because they do have a tendancy to eat it!!!
My 2 year old loves doing more 'structured' craft activities and is actually quite good at doing it 'right' he seems to enjoy copying my examples!:)
I've just started leaving out play dough for them to use, not sure how this si going to go but we'll see!!

[manjay]

Little people need to experience free art. They need to be allowed to experiment and do with the medium what they choose. Crafts can be damaging developmentally if very young children are made to do them. To be told there is a right and a wrong way to glue, things etc at such a young age forces them into failing and getting it wrong so much it will rock their confidence and make them very much less likely to want to try when they are of an appropriate age. This resisitance will also transfer to things like writing when they are at school, they will have grown accustomed to 'getting it wrong' with crafts that they will assume they will get it wrong with writing and develop a can't do it attitude. Settings for very young children need to get away from this idea that craft is for little kids.
Just stick to free, open ended art for little people where there is no right or wrong, there is just fun.

:thumbsup: Absolutely!

Mouse I hate to see a line of 'perfect' pictures or what ever they are supposed to be making.

As I see it, it is our role to provide the provocation (in the form of resources) but it is up to the children what they do with it and what they create. I am also very wary of showing something I have done as again I think that is setting them up to fail.

[babs]

Mine all do crafts and have done since they could sit up 2 of them just gone 19 months old. also we go to playgroup twice a week and sure start are there they bring in paints,glue sand compost and play dough or anything else they want just have to watch one little one as he eats green paint not any other colour just green lol

[Vickster]

I am going to mix some orange paint and I have some paper plates, I am cutting some black eye shapes and mouths and see if they do a pumpkin! We will see what we end up with!

My son went to nursery from the age of 1 until 4 and often had structured pictures from him and he does worry if he gets things wrong now, however, I now put the emphasis on just doing what you want to do and he has relaxed a bit.

[rosebud]

Try to think messy play rather than crafts, it should be about the process of exploring rather than an end product. If you need something to show parents take a photo rather than trying to get them to create a product.

[mummyMia]

My 17 and 19 month olds both love glueing. I cut up small pieces of coloured paper, card or tissue paper and let them stick them down how they want either on a paper plate or a sheet of paper. I don't do very many themes activities but if I do it is always something simple like read a book about a bear and then make a bear mask afterwards by sticking black and brown pieces of paper onto a paper plate. The result looks nothing like an actual bear!

They also love the aquadoodle and draw on it most days:)

[The Juggler]

don't do anything structured with them at that age. well maybe to make a xmas pressie or mothers day but otherwise, lots of free painting, mark makign with different papers, cards, chalks, chunky crayons, pens, water painting outdoors, gluing, varied things to stick on (I usually use different coloured shapes in different materials). :thumbsup:

then just playdoh and messy play. unless you need to make a gift I don't see any point trying to get them to make an end product, they don't understand the process or the point of the end product at that age. they might just udnerstand its a pressie for mum or dad but just let them enjoy the process of making and doing hon,:thumbsup:

[Penny1959]

I totally agree with the whole end product thing - I hate things that clearly an adult has done not the child but do know parents like something their child has created (on their own) at special times.

I have a seperate thread on Christmas ideas for babies (to help me provide a workshop) and some lovely ideas have been mentioned - so take a look as most could be done at other times of year with a little adaptation.

Penny :)

[buzzy bee]

Thanks everyone, you've made me look at this totally differently :thumbsup:

Can I just ask, when people say they do sticking where you cut bits out for them to stick onto paper etc, do you cover the paper in glue first, or do they do the glue aswell?

[mumto2]

I haven't yet done this with my mindee (13 months) but when I used to work in a nursery, we used to do 'non-messy' painting!! Get sandwich bags (the type with the 'zip' bit at the top) fill it (not too much) with a few different coloured paints, close it up and let them 'play' with it (obviously you need to watch them carefully, but they still enjoy spreading the paint around inside the bag, mixing the colours together and seeing what happens, and at christmas time you could add glitter!!!

[mushpea]

all of my mindees join in the fun from 8 months old up to 6yrs, they all paint, glue, bake etc just in their own way ie the 6yrold will do most of the baking her self but with the 8 month old I would just let her hold the spoon and have a go at mixing the ingreediants or prehaps but some of the more edible ingreediants on her high chair tray for her to play with.

[The Juggler]

Thanks everyone, you've made me look at this totally differently :thumbsup:

Can I just ask, when people say they do sticking where you cut bits out for them to stick onto paper etc, do you cover the paper in glue first, or do they do the glue aswell?

let them glue hon. it's amazing the learning they get from dripping, watching and spreading wet glue. One of my mindees was a glue monster at 1 until now (she's 2 1/2), shed cover the whole page in glue and just spend 15 mins spreading it - never glued a thing on it but she obviousy derived great enjoyment and learning from it :thumbsup:

You might have to show them at first what to do, give em a glue stick and have one yourself (like with spoons) and do it together.:) :) have fun!