Crafting With One Year Olds: How to Get Started
Crafting with toddlers and preschoolers is not just about creating cute keepsakes or passing the time; it’s a vital aspect of their development. But what about those tiny artists who have just turned one? Is it really possible to engage them in crafting activities?
Absolutely!
Recently I was asked if it was too soon to start crafting with a 1-year-old.
No way!!
I primarily work with 1 to 3-year-olds and let me tell you, currently the youngest of the 1-year-olds loves painting more than anyone else!
Does he lick the paint sometimes? Sure.
Does he use his fingers more than the paint brush? Most definitely.
Does he make beautiful creations and get super excited when he sees the paint come out? 100%
He is now almost 17 months old and he has been sitting at the table doing the same projects as the other kids for about 5 months.
Before he would sit in his highchair with a crayon or simple painting projects.
Start as soon as they can sit up in their highchair.
Crafting with 1-year-olds is not only possible but also incredibly beneficial for their cognitive, motor, and sensory development, plus it’s just so much fun.
Creativity and Expression
Even as young as 12 months, children are bursting with creativity and curiosity. Art provides them with an outlet to explore the world around them in a tactile and engaging way. Encourage them to experiment with different materials and textures. We are laying a foundation for their lifelong love for creativity.
Creative Ideas for 1-Year-Olds:
- Finger Painting: Set up a safe space with washable paints and large sheets of paper. Let your little dip their fingers into the paint and create their own masterpiece. This sensory experience not only allows them to explore colors and textures but also enhances their fine motor skills.
- Sensory Bins: Fill a shallow container with materials like rice, pasta, cotton balls, pompoms etc. Add in some bowls, safe toys or objects for them to discover and manipulate. Sensory bins stimulate their senses and encourage imaginative play.
Benefits of Crafting with 1-Year-Olds
Cognitive Development
As exciting as it is to have a pretty picture to hang on your wall, crafting with 1-year olds is also about stimulating and growing their minds. Activities like sorting objects by size, color and shape can help strengthen their cognitive skills and lay the groundwork for more complex thinking later on.
Creative Ideas for 1-Year-Olds:
- Shape Sorters: Provide your little with a variety of shapes cut out from colored paper. Encourage them to match the shapes to corresponding holes in a cardboard box or container. This activity helps them learn about shapes, colors, and spatial awareness.
- Stacking Cups: Offer a set of colorful stacking cups for your child to play with. Watch as they explore concepts like size, balance, and order while stacking and nesting the cups.
Fine Motor Skills
Crafting activities can help strengthen the muscles in the little hands and fingers of your 1-year-old, from grasping objects to manipulating materials, this can prepare them for later skills like writing and drawing.
Creative ideas for 1-Year-Olds:
- Tearing Paper Collage: Tear up sheets of colorful paper into smaller pieces and provide your child with a glue stick and a piece of cardstock. Let them stick the paper pieces onto the cardstock to create their own collage. This activity encourages hand-eye coordination and finger dexterity.
- If your child isn’t quite ready for a glue stick, try putting dots of glue on the cardstock for them. This can get sticky, but we embrace the mess here!
- Stringing Beads: Offer large, chunky beads and a shoelace or piece of yarn for your little one to thread through the beads. Not only does this activity improve their fine motor skills, but it also introduces concepts like patterns and sequences.
- Another option is pipe cleaners with large buttons
Sensory Exploration
Sensory bins encourage problem-solving and creative thinking as toddlers manipulate and explore the materials. They can engage multiple senses, including touch, sight, smell, and sometimes even taste and hearing.
Creative ideas for 1-Year-Olds:
- Playdough Play: Set out some homemade or store-bought playdough along with safe tools like cookie cutters or plastic utensils. Watch as your child squishes, molds, and explores the texture of the dough, all while strengthening their hand muscles and enhancing their sensory awareness.
- Texture Collage: Collect a variety of textured materials such as fabric scraps, sandpaper, cotton balls, and feathers. Provide your child with a piece of cardboard and some glue and let them create a collage using the different textures. This activity engages their sense of touch and encourages them to explore different tactile sensations.
- These items would also be wonderful fillers for your sensory bins.
When Is A Good Time To Start?
Children grow and develop at their own pace. While one child is just taking their first steps at a year old, another is running. One is feeding themselves, another simply doesn’t care to. Introducing simple projects and concepts is important as soon as your little can sit. If you have older children, make sure your littlest learner is close by watching, touching, listening.
Setting yourself up for crafting success is a huge concept we talk about around here; this is equally as important for your littles.
- Sitting Independently
A 1-year-old should be able to sit without support for a period of time. Think of where you plan to participate in your project, the floor where they sit on their own? A highchair or booster seat where they have a little more support?
- Grasping Objects
They should have begun developing their pincer grasp, the ability to grasp objects with their fingers. This skill is crucial for holding art supplies such as paint brushes, stickers, crayons etc.
- Hand-Eye Coordination
While still in its early stages, hand-eye coordination is important in grasping and manipulating objects. They likely won’t have the ability to draw/scribble with purpose, the act of picking up a crayon then beginning to mark their paper is a great start!
- Curiosity and Exploration
Children are naturally curious and eager to explore their environment. A great way to show they are ready to start exploring creative arts is when they begin to show interest in touching and manipulating different objects.
- Attention Span
Before you laugh at me talking about the attention span of a 1-year-old, I’m not talking about sitting engaged for an hour, 30 minutes, heck even 10 minutes. We just want your little to take interest and explore the materials rather than drop everything on the floor right away.
How to get started
Crafting with 1-year-olds is such a fun adventure not only for them, but for you as well! Don’t let the thought of their short attention spans or fear of everything going into their mouths stop you.
Follow these easy steps and you will be on your way to building great memories with your little.
- Keep it Simple:
- Choose activities with minimal steps and materials to prevent overwhelm and frustration for both you and your toddler.
- Use Safe Materials:
- opt for non-toxic, child-safe materials that are age-appropriate and won’t pose a choking hazard.
- Prepare the Workspace:
- Cover the crafting area with a plastic tablecloth, kraft paper, or a cardboard box to make cleanup easier. Use washable, child-friendly materials like crayons and washable paints.
- Prepare For Mess By Creating A Cleanup Kit:
- Remember anything can happen while crafting with 1-year-olds. Depending on your activity, prepare yourself for the silliest of messes. –Don’t forget to also cover your toddler! (old t-shirts cut up the sides make a great smock)
- Provide Guidance But Follow Their Lead:
- Offer guidance and assistance as needed but allow your toddler the freedom to explore and create at their own pace. Follow their interests and cues to keep them engaged.
- Encourage Exploration:
- Focus on the process rather than the end result. Allow your toddler to explore different textures, colors, and materials through sensory play.
- Keep Sessions Short:
- Toddlers have short attention spans, so keep crafting sessions brief and engaging. Aim for 10-15 minutes at a time.
- Embrace Messiness:
- Messy play is an important part of the crafting experience for toddlers. Embrace the mess and focus on the fun and learning that comes from exploring different materials.
- Celebrate Their Creations:
- Praise your toddler for their efforts and creativity, regardless of the outcome. Display their artwork proudly and celebrate their accomplishments.
- Make it a Positive Experience:
- Crafting with your toddler should be a positive and enjoyable experience for both of you. Focus on having fun!
More Ideas For Crafting With Your 1-Year-Old
If you’re having a hard time deciding what you want to get started with, I’ve got a large list below to help you out. These are easy ways to get your little artist creating in different ways.
Painting is our favorite around here
Finger Painting: Use non-toxic finger paints and a large piece of paper for your toddler to explore colors and textures. Add brushes or other items for your little to test out!
Edible Art: Create art using food items like yogurt, or pudding on a tray or paper. This also makes a great sensory bin filler, think chocolate pudding mud!
Crayon or marker coloring: Set out one or two crayons or markers with a sheet of paper and let your child make marks and scribbles. Markers are great for them to notice the cause and effect. Color transfer is a lot easier with a marker then a crayon.
Sticker Collage: Provide stickers and a large sheet of paper for your toddler to stick them on, encouraging creativity and fine motor skills. Don’t worry if they stack them all on top of each other or put one on then take it off over and over.
Tissue Paper Collage: Tear or cut pieces of colorful tissue paper and let your toddler glue them onto paper to create a collage.
Sensory Bags: Fill sealable plastic bags with different materials like hair gel, colored water, or sand, and let your toddler squish and explore. Add beads or googly eyes for them to push around. Don’t forget to securely tape all the edges!
Paper Plate Crafts: Paper plates are the perfect canvas for loads of projects. From our paint palette umbrella to adorable frogs. Try placing a couple colors of paint on a paper plate and them spread it around this is a fun way to create spring flowers!
Bubble Wrap Stamping: Dip bubble wrap in paint or have your little paint it then let your toddler stamp it onto paper to create interesting patterns. Don’t forget to let them pop pop pop the bubble wrap…fun!!
Water Play: Set up a shallow container of water with cups, funnels, and toys for your toddler to splash and play with.
Playdough Exploration: Provide homemade or store-bought playdough for your toddler to squeeze, roll, and shape. Add fun tools such as cookie cutters, rollers, or child safe utensils.
Nature Collage: Collect leaves, flowers, and sticks from outside and glue them onto paper or cardboard to create a nature collage. Stick your collection to contact paper for another fun canvas. Collecting is the fun part!
Sensory bins: Try something super simple like shredded paper or cotton balls in a large tub with a couple bowls. These simple activities are a huge favorite! Ready to get a little messy? How about putting shaving cream and a couple toys in a bin.
Cotton ball Painting: Use large pompoms or cotton balls as paintbrushes, dipping them into paint and rolling or dabbing them onto paper. Clip a clothes pin to the cotton ball to create a handle.
Musical Shakers: Fill small containers with rice, beans, or pasta and let your toddler decorate them with stickers, ribbons, and markers to create musical shakers. Turn it up a notch and let your toddler fill the container!
Do A Dot markers: Every kid I have ever met loves these circular bingo daubers. Show your kiddo to dot dot dot their paper. Grab some fun premade printables or draw little circles on a sheet of paper and see if they dot the circles.
Mess free Ziploc bag painting: Sometimes we want to be as clean as possible but also offer a fun engaging project. Try adding some paint to a piece of paper or paper plate and put it in a plastic zipper bag. Let your little squish the paint around.
Toy Car Painting: Dip toy cars or trucks into paint and let your toddler drive them around on paper to create tracks and patterns.
Color Sorting: Provide a variety of colored objects (blocks, toys, play food etc) and encourage your toddler to sort them into different colored bins or containers.
Sponge Painting: Cut sponges into different shapes and let your toddler dip them into paint to stamp onto paper.
Texture Exploration: Offer a variety of textured materials (fabric scraps, sandpaper, cotton balls) for your toddler to touch and explore.
Painting with flowers: Try painting projects with unusual objects. This will not only change textures on their projects, but allow your child to begin thinking ‘outside of the box’ while creating their art.
Takeaway Tips
- Start slow. You probably won’t have a Picasso creation right away and that’s okay! Whether you get a couple scribbles or some small marks on the paper, just start!
- Let your little explore the materials.
- Set yourself up for success by making sure your clean up supplies are handy!
- Take a moment to sit back and watch. It is truly fascinating seeing these little minds at work.
- Talk to your little about the materials
- This is red
- This is blue
- This is a paint brush
- Set clear rules right away
- Do not eat paint, it tastes yucky! (we need to try at least)Do not drop the paint brush
- Do not paint your neighbor, only paint your paper.
- Stick close by, especially if you are just starting creative exploration with your 1 year old.
- Remember it’s not about a finished product, in fact, lots of times these creative activities won’t yield a take home item at all.
Whether you are ready to jump right in with finger paints or are going to start slow with tactile and sensory activities, I encourage you to just start. It is truly an amazing thing watching what these brilliant little minds come up with.
