Daily Art Project

A few years ago, before obtaining both my bachelors and masters in English,

I worked as a preschool teacher and I got a lot of great ideas on how to keep kids busy during the day. Still, some times I run out of ideas on how to keep my fifteen month old daughter busy throughout the day. In between naps and meals, my little one likes to be on the go constantly. This can be a little difficult especially when it is over a hundred degrees outside, and we must stay indoors. One thing that has helped me to keep my little one busy is that I set up goals for us to do every day. One of the goals is a daily art project. Of course the internet is an awesome tool to help you create ideas for art projects, but a lot of the ideas are for kids who are older. Toddlers can and should be involved in art projects too. In fact, they actually love them as long as they aren't too difficult. Today, my daughter and I created a fingerprint tree for her daddy. The only tools we used were construction paper, crayons, and paints. First, I drew the trunk of the tree and then helped my daughter stick her fingers into the paint and together we dabbed at the paper, creating a colorful tree with her tiny fingerprints. She really loved it because every time we hit the paper with her finger tips I shouted "Yippee!" and she thought that was the best thing ever. After we cleaned up the paint, I gave my little one some crayons and let her scribble on the rest of the paper. Letting toddlers use crayons helps with the development of the writing skills, but just be careful because there is something about crayons that makes a toddler want to put a crayon directly in his or her mouth. If you have other daily art project ideas, feel free to share.