Entertaining a toddler on a dime: Enjoying Christmas crafts year-round

Whoops, so it's February. Baby #2 is five months old, and, well, we've been inside a LOT. Thankfully, I have a toddler who loves crafts and has a rather long attention span. I should have posted these project ideas while we were doing them before the holidays, but I'm going to fudge it and tell you what we did and how you can adapt it to enjoy any time of year.

I decided that to have a safe Christmas tree (and preserve my good ornaments), my toddler should make all of the ornaments this year, so we got busy making messes. However, these projects don't have to be constrained to the Christmas tree, especially now that we're looking at Valentine's day. With some simple modifications, you can enjoy these projects year round.

Salt dough ornaments

Nothing new here--80% of my Facebook feed in December was pictures of friends' kids making salt dough ornaments. But it's still fun. I've tried a few salt dough recipes, but this is the one that I like best:

1 cup (288 g) salt 

2 cups (125 g) all-purpose flour 

1 cup (8 oz) lukewarm water 

1 tablespoon (15 ml) vegetable oil (to make the dough easier to knead)

1 tablespoon (15 ml) lemon juice (to make the finished product harder) 

After we baked the ornaments (like, a week later), we painted them. During nap time, I took them outside and sprayed them with acrylic so they will last forever. On another day, we pom-pomed the bejesus out of these things. He told me where each pom-pom should go, I applied a dab of glue, and he applied the pom-pom. We went through a whole bag.



To make this project fun any time of year, use cookie cutters shaped like animals to make your own pretend farm or shaped like vehicles to play cars with. Get cookie cutters shaped like letters and have your kid cut out his or her name. Heck, use heart shaped cookie cutters, paint the dried dough hearts, and include a message of love for Valentine's day (but don't eat it). Every six months or so, I also like to roll out a circle and have my son make his hand print in it. I let it dry and put it on the mantle. It's a nice way to track his growth over time (because some day I won't be able to believe his hands were ever this small).

Rigatoni wreaths
My son likes threading shoelaces through large wooden beads, so I figured one variation of this would be rigatoni pasta and pipe cleaners. It's a great fine-motor activity, and you can add an educational element by counting the rigatoni as your tot threads each one. To make rigatoni wreaths, you will need:

Rigatoni pasta
Food coloring
Vinegar
Pipe cleaners
Yarn

To dye the rigatoni, add a few drops of food coloring to about 1 TB of vinegar. Place uncooked rigatoni into a bowl or plastic container with a lid. Pour the vinegar/food coloring mixture over the rigatoni, place the lid on the container, and shake gently until the pasta is covered. Pour rigatoni onto a cookie sheet and allow to dry.

Have your little one thread the dried rigatoni onto the pipe cleaners (it is tempting to just use yarn, but the pipe cleaners are stiff and easier to thread), and then twist the ends of the pipe cleaners together to form a circle. Use about 6" of yarn to create a loop for hanging the wreath. Although it looks great with green rigatoni on the Christmas tree, to enjoy this project year round, use rainbow colored pasta and hang the wreath in a window.

Tiny Christmas Trees

I scoured the neighborhood for pine cones and found two. Two. All the pine trees around here, and it's like they've forgotten to procreate. But a friend's father had thousands of these beauties from Skowhegan, ME, so I grabbed a bagful. Using plain old glue, we decorated them with buttons shaped like snowflakes, pom-poms, white rice, and cotton balls (to look like snow).

To put your pine cones to use year round, mix Crisco and peanut butter together (a little more Crisco than peanut butter) and let your tot smear

it on the pine cone. When it is adequately covered in sticky goodness, roll the pine cone in bird seed. (Again, this isn't a new idea, but it is fun.) I have yet to decide whether it is better to put the string on the pine cone before or after the peanut butter application--either way is messy. Then go outside together to hang on the tree for the birds. If possible, hang near a window so your tot can watch the birds enjoying the gift you made together, but do not put too close to the house as the bird seed may attract mice. We did this around Christmas, and I explained that they were our Christmas gifts for the birds (because animals have Christmas, too), so when we hung them up outside, we wished the birds a joyeux noel.

Snowman hand print

Search for "hand print art" on Pinterest, and you will no doubt be flooded with great ideas for any occasion. This is just one example that I found particularly cute. I folded a large piece of paper in half several times to make 4x6" rectangles, and then had the tot put his hand print on each rectangle. When the paint dried, I added the faces, but my toddler got to tell me which snowmen needed hats (he got to decorate the ones that didn't turn out well with his own set of markers). When they were done, I cut the sheet of paper into cards, and he got to decide which family member got which card. In a burst of Christmas busy-bee-ness, I laminated them and put them on each family member's gift as a keepsake tag. To enjoy hand print art any time of year, seriously, Pinterest is the place. Foot print art is also particular popular.




Happy crafting!