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Craft Ideas
Craft Ideas
Art Easel
We recently purchased an art easel and it was the best purchase. I knew my 3 year old was ready for an easel to draw and practice writing. What I didn't expect was how much my 1 year old would love it as well. She constantly goes over to the easel, writes with the erasable markers then erases what she writes and writes more. She also likes to use the chalk on the back of the easel on the chalkboard side.
I was happy to find a reasonably priced easel at Target for $19.99 as most children's easels range closer to $50. It was the Board Dudes 3 in 1 Adjustable Children's Art Easel. It was super easy to put together (no tools needed) and exactly what we needed.

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Drawing Book
I need to buy Ed Emberley's Drawing Book of Animals! I loved this book as a child and since both of my kids (1 year old and 3 year old) love to draw this is a great book to have. My 3 year old drew this picture while I was cleaning. He simply looked at a picture in his sketch pad and tried to copy the picture. If I get a book like Ed Emberley's he could easily draw whatever he wanted. If you've never seen Ed Emberley's books, get them at your local library and I bet you will buy your own copy.

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Learning Colors
Please refer to the "Color Lessons" article for more information to make the rainbow craft or paper towel craft.
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Rainbow Craft Using Colored Rice |
Paper Towel Craft |
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Thanksgiving Turkeys
I try to do a special craft each holiday season. For Thanksgiving, we made turkeys. When my son was 2 1/2 I helped trace his hand and then he colored the turkeys himself.
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Christmas
For Christmas we made reindeer by tracing my son's foot (don't outline toes) and then traced his hand for the antlers. You draw eyes and a nose on the face (made out of the foot) and use the hands as antlers. Picture coming soon.
When my son was 3 1/2 I realized the need for an Advent calendar. We had seen Santa on December 4, 2011, and so on December 5, 2011 he ran into our room when he woke up and said, "Are the toys here? Is my ambulance here?" My mom told me about a simple advent calendar they use to make in her classroom. You draw a picture of santa's face and on his beard you draw a circle representing each day in December until Christmas. Then the child can glue a cotton ball down each day and when Santa's beard is full, it is Christmas! If you don't want to draw it yourself you can download the Santa Advent Calendar from kaboose.com. This is the one we downloaded and my 3 1/2 year old colored it. He decided that Santa should have an orange hat rather than a red hat.

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Valentine's Day
For Valentine's Day we made cards. I wrote it and drew the hearts for my 3 year old to color. You could cut out hearts and have them glue on the hearts as well.
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Hats

Hats are fun to wear for a special occasion. You can make your own custom hats depending on the celebration. We decided to make hats in celebration of Father's Day. My 3 year old had fun decorating his hat. I simply cut out construction paper and taped it to old birthday hats. We are looking forward to surprising Daddy on Father's Day.
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Last updated: February 2012; December 2011; August 2011; June 2011