4 year old crafts

[amyval]

What kind of things do you do with a 3-5 year old? My daughter is turning 4 and loves to do crafts but I'm running out of ideas. She's a girl who needs constant "help" (or thinks she does) so what kinds of things could she do while I had some supervision.

[Aimee]

This is a good site for craft ideas (though lots of them do require adult help).

Kate likes to paint with watercolors. She also likes to do those foam art thingies. They make crowns, door hangers, just tons of stuff and the kids simply put stickers and stuff on them. Kate also likes to make little puppets by coloring/drawing/cutting out people/animals and then taping them onto straws. After she makes the puppets, she puts on a mini puppet show.

[alaskagirl]

That's a great site Aimee - I'll have to bookmark it.

A few things we've done here:

Pinecone Birdfeeders - Cover a pinecone with peanut butter, then roll in birdseed and hang from a tree.

Macaroni necklaces - Dye macaroni with food coloring if you want. Then run some string (we used dental floss) through the noodles and make a necklace.

Food Owls - Glue a pretzel (owl's head) onto a piece of paper. Glue a cheerio in each hole at the top for eyes and a macaroni in the middle for a beak.

[amyval]

That looks like a great site Aimee thanks!

[Caryl]

Amy, I'm guessing you've looked in our Crafts for Kids cubby. There are lots of fun, easy projects there that I bet your daughter would love. Let us know what her favorite arts and crafts activities end up being this summer!

[MommyKatie]

A few things I did with Taylor a while back:

We made masks out of paper plates
Flowers out of tissue paper
Purses out of paper plates (folded, painted and used pipe cleaners as the strap)
took a foam picture frame & decorated it with foam stickers & a magnet for the fridge
Popsicle stick picture frames colored/painted and magnet on back again
Greeting cards with Stamps/stickers
Bead necklaces
I let her go around the house with the digital camera & take pictures and we printed up the good ones & made a collage of her photos (most were pics of her dolls and the kitty and her sister)
Finger paint
Sidewalk chalk outside
baking cookies/pies

That's all I can think of. HTH!

[Quoth]

If she feels she needs help, why not try a child led activity instead of making "a something". When I was at college, they constantly reminded us the learning and the fun is in the process, not the end product. Let her get creative.

Junk modelling is ideal, collect kitchen roll tubes and loads of different shapes and sizes of boxes (soap and stock cube sized ones are ideal for adding to cereal boxes). Plastic lids from milk bottles, anything you have. Charlie will spend ages choosing what she wants and where it goes. Once it's dry she can paint it. Add some PVA glue to the paint so that it adheres to the surface of the boxes.

No, it doesn't resemble anything in my eyes but she's enjoyed doing it independently and learnt to experiment and explore with different media and techniques, what works and what doesn't. They get more out of finding out for themselves than from us telling them why it works or doesn't.

Charlie loves printing with junk too, I put the paint in paper plates for easy clean up, then provide a variety of boxes, yoghurt pots, a plastic pot scourer, kitchen roll tubes etc for her to print with. Think shape and texture, what would make an interesting print? Try cheap plastic cars for painting tyre tracks, or make roller ball pictures by rolling a ball in paint and dropping it in a tray lined with paper. These are things that don't require adult help once it's set up, they don't need guidance in placing things in the right way or right place for it to resemble a picture in a book or online.

Structured activities are great for learning to follow instructions but it's good to balance it out with child led activities to let them take charge and get creative.

[MommyKatie]

Wow Quoth thats a great idea!! I never thought of that. We're going to have to do that some day too. Thanks!!

[amyval]

thanks everyone. You've given me some great new ideas.

[ErinFiat]

My kids have recently become stamp-a-holics. I had a new set out the other day and a few new inks...they went nuts. DS is especially fond of the scrubby.

DH mentioned that if this is a family activity, the family budget could help with stamps (since up to this point, it's been business profit and my spending money). Uhm yeah!!! I think, since we're working on letters, I could probably justify the grins and giggles font. I just have to hurry because we're about to move into a house and get DD back into school (rather than homeschooling like we have been). Oh but wait, we'll still work at home. She's a workbook addict as well.