Craft Supplies

I agree with the mom who wrote about playdough, my kids had a box with an old rolling pin and one of those plastic thingies for rolling out pies so it doesn't stick to the table. I also have a vinyl table cloth for craft time to save the table, that prevents me from not wanting the kiddos to create as the mess stays to a minimum. Also, my kids love pipecleaners & sidewalk chalk. I'd recommend you get a book of age-appropriate crafts and teach him a craft here and there. Do not forget the wonderful world of finger paints!

There are some great projects you can do with your son at www.orientaltrading.com

There are lots of fun and educational products at low cost. I have used them in my classroom. It is worth the time to check out what they have available.

The item that's been getting constant use this year with my 5yo (just finishing his 2nd year of preschool) is the easel we have from Ikea. It has white board/dry erase on one side and chalkboard on the other, but we pretty much just pin paper up on the chalkboard side (with a couple of big binder clips) and the kids use the dry erase side. The white board side is also magnetic, and I have a set of these magnetic letter tiles that all visiting kids seem to love: http://brightideaswebcatalog.com/magnetic_teaching_tiles_...

I keep most of the same stuff you mentioned onhand. Also, shape stencils, stamp sets and ink pads. (they also have cool stamp sets at Bright Ideas, the same store I linked above - they have a retail location near my house.) Lots and lots of white paper, white cardstock, white construction paper (same store again.)

And stuff I don't buy but just squirrel away from other projects or whatever - felt pieces, fabric glue, old jewelry, buttons, jeweled glue-on things, fabric scraps, yard, colored pipe cleaners. We don't use all of that stuff all that often, but when they get on a creative tear it's nice to have a lot of things to get out that they can use. My grandma used to keep a big bag of fabric and a box of old xmas cards I could cut up and make things out of. I loved that!

Hi D.-

I love using this website with my kids:

http://familyfun.go.com/utilities/global/feature/fftv-arc...

They advertise to buy their yearly subscription for their magazine, but the website is totally free and there is so much on it! My kids love watching the short craft and cooking recipe videos and then they will tell me if they want to make it themselves. There are tons of ideas on it... so I won't both typing them myself, jsut click on the link and have fun this summer!

J.

Whenever I go to Target or Michael's, I cruise by the dollar bins as they seem to always have miscellaneous "craft" stuff such as stencils (my 3 year old really loves these!), stickers, activity/coloring books, seasonal art projects or baking supplies...

Would love to hear anyone else's ideas as I am always looking for fresh ideas and most importantly, things we can do with both my 3 year old and my 18 month old! Challenging but getting easier---at least he isn't eating the playdoh anymore. :)

hi D. my almost 4 year old loves doing art as well so i keep a whole box of things on hand like crayons, markers, paints, glue sticks, safety scissors, construction paper, glitter glue and regular glitter, popsicle sticks, colored pencils, colored pipe cleaners, googgly eyes, foam shapes and alot more. I also keep a paper bag of recycle items like plastic bottles and ribbon, egg cartons, paper plates, used dryer sheets, buttons, lids, and alot of other things. You can go to craftbits.com to get all kinds of cool ideas for craft projects to do with recycled materials. Have fun with it, and take lots of pictures and keep a scrapbook of the early projects cause they are so much fun to look back on later.

Two of my 4-year-olds favorites: Benderoos and Dot Markers! She also likes to paint suncatchers. We like to go to Joanne and get little craft projects (almost every week they have a 40% off coupon in the paper). I've also purchased crafts items (foamies, pom-poms, construction paper etc.) at Dollar Tree. I'm sure the library has books and magazines about specific craft projects you can do. Have fun!!!

Hi D.,

I saw that you did not mentioned play-doh. My son is now 6 and from ages 3-5 he really liked playing with his toy plastic frogs, snakes, bugs in the play-doh. I got one of those plastic container boxes and kept the "play-doh toys" with the playdoh. If your son is into cars like my son you can even put some cars in there too. He like making tracks with the reptiles and other things. He would do this for at least an hour! Also, you can get those brown paper lunch bags ( or even socks) and make puppets out of them using glue and whatever supplies: yarn, paper, feathers, etc.

S.