No Cost Craft Activity for a Toddler

I have two aims for my son's home art education, the first is that it should be no to low cost, and the second is that projects will be useful in some way. Here is another no cost craft activity that resulted in a decorated box for Father's Day, this is a very good educational activity for this age group.

20 month old Thomas pastes recycled tissue paper to decorate a box

This week, Thomas and I pasted scraps of tissue paper on a cardboard box to decorate it for Father's Day. I save a lot of wrapping paper but most of it is too ripped to use again, so this tissue paper got torn up and pasted on. Thomas loved the feeling of the home-made paste, smearing it with his fingers onto the box, and also using his brush to paint the paste onto the box. I helped him rip up the tissue paper which he found difficult, but eventually he enjoyed slapping the pieces of tissue on top of the paste. This was a really worthwhile activity for him to do, its a great early learning experience (and I used to be an early childhood teacher long ago, so I would know!)

home-made paste made from flour, sugar and water cooked on a stove

Even the glue didn't cost me more than a 1/3 cup of flour, because I made my own. This was a simple clag type of glue made from flour, sugar and water, its perfect for pasting paper onto paper or cardboard. I'm not sure why the sugar is needed and I was out of sugar that day, so I just put in a tablespoon of brown sugar instead, and it turned out just fine.

toddler paintings make useful gift wrap

So far, that's two craft activities that have resulted in something useful. The first art activity I blogged about the other week resulted in some painted gift wrap for Father's Day. There's not a wasted piece of art and craft around here! There are so many things my son and I can do that are fun, productive and cheap - watch this space!