Category: 2-Year-Old

Finger Cymbals

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We always love adding to our homemade instrument collection, so I thought this project looked cute. The instruments were branded as “cymbals” although honestly they seemed more like castanets to me! But whatever you call them, the project is cute and easy.

Save 4 bottle caps, and have your child paint them in any color. To keep fingers from getting too messy, clip the bottle cap to a clothespin for easy application – genius!

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We let the caps dry overnight, and then I cut two strips from cardboard to be the base. Fill each bottle cap very full (almost overflowing) with glue. Turn over and press onto the cardboard. Repeat with a second cap, so that when the cardboard is folded in half, the two caps will click together.

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Let dry completely – then get clicking!

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Paper Towel Flowers

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Be prepared for several crafty flower posts in the next week or so. I have a case of spring fever, plus another flower-based theme I’m working on (stay tuned for more on that!…). So for starters, here is a lovely and easy flower craft that toddlers will adore.

Watercolor and paper towels makes for an innovative painting experience, because with just a light touch of the paint brush, the color will bleed across the paper towel. Travis had fun testing the limits of this for a little while.

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We were using liquid watercolors for the first time, but you might consider sticking with regular watercolors. I confess, it was this mama who knocked over our yellow for the first spill, and Travis later decided to pour the watercolors back and forth to mix them, which resulted in a spilled cup of blue. So… User discretion advised!

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Despite the silly mess, we ended up with three covered pieces of paper towel to turn into flowers.

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Let dry completely, then invite your toddler to rip the paper towel into pieces – this part is sure to be a big hit!

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I arranged the pieces into three piles, each stacked in order from largest to smallest. Fold up into a flower shape, and secure with a clothespin stem.

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To add a dose of reality to our flowers, we then scented them with perfume! Travis was astounded that our flowers had a real smell, and soon was running all about the house waving them. A great spring craft.

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Banana Ice Cream

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Banana Ice Cream (1)Better known in our house as “Banana Swirl” (thanks to Daniel Tiger!) this healthy and yummy treat is easier-than-pie to whip up, and will delight your kids.

The first step is to peel your bananas, as many as you want, depending how many kids want the ice cream. Figure on 2 bananas to make 1 serving of banana ice cream for a toddler. Ripe bananas work best!

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Travis loved helping to peel them and then use his butter knife to slice them into imperfectly-perfect chunks. Freeze the bananas for at least one hour.

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I wish we’d frozen the bananas a little longer, but Travis was impatient! Soon it was time to give everything a whirly swirl in the blender until perfectly smooth.

Yum, banana ice cream.

Pasta Bead Sequencing

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Here’s another fantastic activity for the Kool-Aid dyed pasta we made a few weeks back. We’ve already strung together bracelets with our pasta beads, but this time I used the pasta for a slightly more educational purpose.

Using the template available from Kiwi Crate, I printed out pictures of the pasta beads arranged by color, and then had them laminated. You can skip the lamination, but doing so means you can do this activity again and again!

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Encourage your child to line up the beads in the order that’s shown on the card. As an alternative, give him or her a pipe cleaner, to thread the pasta in order.

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Travis is a little young to accomplish a task like this from start to finish still, but he loved selecting a pasta piece from his bag and placing it on the correct color. We’ll work up to completing the whole sequence on pipe cleaners as he gets older!

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This activity would be perfect for on-the-go moments when you need to keep your kiddo occupied, like a restaurant or waiting room.

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Update: At closer to 3, Travis now loves doing this activity directly onto a pipe cleaner!

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Make a Rain Meter

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Rainy March sure came in like a lion, and seems to be ending the same way! Meaning it was the perfect time to make a rain meter! Travis wasn’t especially interested in making this craft (another clever suggestion from High Five magazine), but he sure loved the results!

To make the rain meter, we laid a fork along a piece of masking tape and made 5 notches. Label them 1 through 5, having your child count along with you.

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Place the tape on a plastic cup, then secure the cup some place outside where rain will fall. We taped ours quite securely to the balcony because our rain storm involved a lot of wind!

The next morning, we could check on our results. When I told Travis the liquid in the cup was rain, he was amazed. “Can I hold it?” he asked. “Can I touch it?” I have to admit, I’ve never put my fingers in a cup of collected rain water either, and it was neat to think that they started out as individual rain drops!

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After the first storm, the rain was just above our 1 mark. We intend to keep collecting through upcoming April showers to see how much spring rain we get!

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Spray Bottle & Watercolor

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Travis has recently loved using a spritz bottle to “clean” alongside me. I’ve set up safe zones in which he can do so without getting the whole house wet – bathtub tiles, his chalkboard – but thought he’d love it if I granted him permission to spritz from the spray bottle in a rather taboo way… With colored water!

To make our “paint” we added one pack of Kool-aid – in black cherry thank you very much – for a nice dark result.

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I set Travis up with paper and newspaper to spray to his heart’s content, but it quickly became apparent that neither was absorbent enough.

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A switch to watercolor paper saved the day! We loved exploring the ways the bottle could make small dots from further way, and big wet blobs when held close to the paper.

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As a bonus, your “paintings” will smell fantastic once finished, making this a nice project for the senses as well.

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Be forewarned: Kool-aid stains, so you need to be careful or things will get really messy. You might consider waiting and doing the activity outside in the warm weather!

Stress Ball

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“Terrible twos” don’t have to be terrible. A simple too like a stress ball can help your child calm down in a rough moment – and help you stay joyful as a parent! We talked a lot about feelings lately with our Koala Feelings crate, and helping your child identify frustration is a key first step in quelling a tantrum.

Ready to help your toddler squeeze away emotions? Grab a balloon, a funnel, and cornstarch. Lacking a funnel, we actually used an old party horn, which was shaped perfectly!

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Inflate the balloon a couple of times to stretch it out, then insert the funnel. Gradually add your cornstarch until the balloon is filled; you may need a kebab skewer or pencil to help push the cornstarch down – Travis loved this part.

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Now it was time to give a squeeze; he thought it was very cool how soft and squishy it was. The stress ball would also work great in situations where your child is nervous or scared!

 

Marshmallow Sculptures

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Travis and I had some gooey fun attempting to make sculptures from marshmallows last November, but I confess our attempts were foiled by using large marshmallows and unsteady straws as construction materials.

This time we used toothpicks and the small marshmallows from Dandies, and were able to create much sturdier constructions! Note: I recommend playing this game soon after your child has had a meal or a snack – that way the marshmallows will be viewed more as building material, and less as a treat to eat… Although we did sneak a few bites along the way!

Already compared to November, Travis was much better at construction. He loved adding a marshmallow to either end of a toothpick, and loved that they looked like Q-tips!

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I then helped arrange these into more complex structures, whether two-dimensional shapes…

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Or three-dimensional creations.

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The project was a great way to discuss shapes and dimensions! We even tried a double-decker hexagon.

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In sum, sticky fun for everyone.

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Paint Up a Storm

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This idea from our April copy of High Five magazine was the perfect project on a gray day as we head into rainy April – what better way to help children enjoy all those April showers that will bring May flowers??

To start, we looked out the window at the stormy day, and I asked Travis what colors he saw, pointing out various tones of gray and deep blue. I asked him if he wanted to paint the day, and his enthusiastic answer was yes!

I set out watercolor and watercolor paper, but first we needed to add our “raindrops”: tear bits of masking tape into pieces, and adhere to the paper; when you remove the pieces later, you’ll have white raindrops left behind.

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Travis barely paused for this step before diving for the paints. He talked as he worked about the various shades of blue he made…

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…and then impressed me by painting “puddles”!

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Mama made her own watercolor while he worked, and we collaborated on a third, ending up with three stormy paintings.

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Let the watercolor dry completely before removing the tape and revealing your “rain drops”.

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The paintings are perfect to transform into gifts. We folded one in half to make a “Cloudy Card” as a gift for his grandpa. A second one we cut into strips to be “Rainy Day Bookmarks.”

Finally, we glued a photo in the center of the third, making a Stormy Weather Picture Frame – the perfect gift for daddy’s desk!

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What other gift ideas can you think of with these stormy paintings? Please share in the comments!

Scented Salt Dough

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Salt dough projects aren’t just for Christmas ornaments – we brought the scent of spring into our house with this neat take on the project!

The first step was to whip up salt dough of course, and Travis always loves projects that involve mixing. In a bowl, combine:

1 cup flour

1/2 cup salt

1/2 cup water

If your dough is too sticky, simply add a little more flour. Next we mixed in just a drop of food coloring and kneaded it in, resulting in a pretty marbled effect. Lavender and green felt like the perfect spring shades!

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Instead of Christmas shapes, we rolled and cut our dough into animals like sheep, pigs, and cows. And of course Travis had fun just playing with the dough for a while, and requesting extra flour to make his hands a springtime mess!

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Bake the dough at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes.

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Once it cooled, we added the finishing touch – a drop of lavender oil to the back of each piece. After that, the whole apartment smelled like springtime!

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