arts and crafts with my 3 year old

kellyloveszach

He loves doing crafts so we spend a lot of time doing them.  However I feel like we are in a rut.  What are your favorite arts and crafts to do?  Also do you have any books you can recommend for arts and crafts? 

I have been on pinterest a lot and have gotten a lot of good ideas but I am looking for some tried and true ideas.  Also I would love to have a book to reference.   

redhead2466

I find that most crafts arent age appropriate for a 3 yr old, and then I just end up doing it all or it would end up in the garbage.  

One thing I have found is letting DD paint things we have made. We made some salt dough ornaments before Xmas and I let her paint them all. I also cut tp rolls into little strips (thank you Pinterest) and DD also painted those. I then glued them together in the centre to make flowers and they were also Xmas ornaments that I tied to grandma & grandpa's Xmas gifts "made by Katie".  

Other age-appropriate ideas I've found on Pinterest are bird feeders: tp rolls smeared with peanut butter then rolled in birdseed.  Messy, but whatever.  You could also make a milk carton feeder, and let your child paint that.  Finger painting? Hand and/or foot prints?  I'm always on the lookout for good craft ideas for kids, so I'll check back for others' ideas....

howleyshell

My hard core crafter loves Fun Fusion.

After posting about it on here I learned that they make a version with larger beads for younger kids.

May be worth a google....

My little guy got frustrated with the regular one at age young 3 because his fine motor skills just were not there yet but I think he would have dug the one meant for younger kids with larger beads.

These happen to be great for working on fine motor skills!! 

kellyloveszach

I can tell you some of the things we have done.  The good, bad and ugly.

Good:  Paper plates with globs of paint, then lay wax paper over the top.  He spread the paint around (he doesn't like getting paint on his hands).  Later I am going to cut out fish shapes and he will be able to glue eyes on.

I cut out crowns and let him decorate with markers, glue, glitter glue and pom poms.  He did okay.  Didn't wear the crown much afterwards, I was hoping to transition into a whole day of imagination but I think that might be for older kids

Bad:  I taped two big poster boards together and traced his body.  Then I did different expressions for the face and put velcro on the backs.  So he can give himself new haircuts, expressions, eyes, etc...I didn't get as many done as I would like because it was labor intensive for me and he didn't have much interest in playing with the parts.  

Snowflakes and hearts covered with glitter.  We do this one often even though it's under the bad category.  It's still fun, it just is messy but cleanup isn't too bad.  I cut out hearts and snowflakes and put glue on them.  He glitters them, basically he pours out the whole can of glitter on them.  Then we let them dry and hang them in the window.  

Sock puppets:  Thought it would be fun to decorate them and make sock puppets.  However turns out it's scares him.  He doesn't like puppets.  Who knew. 

Ugly:  Rainbow Rice - I don't mind a mess but this was a whole new level of mess, same with cloud dough.  He started throwing it and it got out of hand.  Maybe outside during the summer.  

 

Please post any ideas you have tried.  I am always looking for new ones. 

Quiksilver620

DD loves workbooks like this, and I've also found some at Michel's craft store: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0887431453/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER

 

 

BallSox

Painting with different "brushes":  wheels on play cars, feet of play animals, spoons, q-tips, cookie cutters, pine cones, leaves or even small sticks/boughs from pine trees. 

Old magazines and scissors

Collages (three year olds LOVE LOVE LOVE to glue)