5 Home Art Projects Children Will Love
It’s no secret that we love arts and crafts projects here at Simon Center. The endless benefits of letting kids engage in art activities are no secret, either. But while your children are certain to get a healthy dose of arts and crafts at school and daycare, there are tons of easy, engaging art-centered projects you can do with your children at home that are guaranteed to not only keep them entertained, but continue helping them grow.
Colorful Pasta Necklaces
Ages 3 & Up
A super-charged version of one of the most classic of art projects! Adding the little flare of coloring pasta shells to brighten up this activity is the added twist your child with love. Dying your pasta shells is quick, simple, and fun!
- Mix an ounce of liquid food coloring with a ½ cup of vinegar. This mixture is simple and very child-safe.
- Place your pasta shells in an air-tight food container and pour coloring mixture over top. Seal the lid and let your child go to town shaking the pasta to coat it in the coloring.
- Pour out onto a paper plate or covered cookie sheet and let dry.
- Utilize as many colors as you’d like. Happy crafting!
Yarn
Hearts
Ages 3
& Up
With
Valentine’s Day right around the corner, this one is sure to be a favorite. A
few simple steps and your children can create colorful yarn hearts that can be
hung, used to fill bowls for colorful decoration, or give away as unique
Valentine’s gifts. The best ones come from little hands!
1. Make heart-shaped cutouts from
cardboard or foam board. The material just needs to be firm enough that it
won’t break when wrapped with yarn. Make a variety – some solid and some with
the centers cut out to make wrapping more fun, and create more designs.
2. Take a small ball of yarn, and tape
the loose end to the piece of cardboard. Then let your child have a blast
wrapping the yard around the cutout. You can stick to one color for pretty
solid red hearts, or mix it up with different colors. When you switch colors,
simply cut the first yarn thread, and tie the loose end of the next color to it.
Rainbow hearts are just a few snips away.
Cardboard Tube Shakers
Toddler Ages & Up
A quick craft activity where the end result is a fun toy your child can have fun with over and over! Save empty paper towel holders for a week and odds are you’ll have enough for the whole family to make one of these. Most of the other materials you probably already have around the house, too.
- Paper towel tubes
- Paper and tape
- Duct-tape (colored is best, but plan can be colored or covered!
- Uncooked rice or beans
- Stickers, markers, glitter paint, feathers, buttons, or any other type of craft materials that can be used for decoration
Cover a paper towel tube with a layer of paper, and use duct tape to cover one end. Before closing the second end, fill the tube with two handfuls of the uncooked rice or beans. Close the second end with duct tape. Try and get the duct tape as tight across the opening as possible.
Decorate the outside of the tube with all of the craft materials mentioned above. Glue feathers for flare, draw fun designs with markers, or add some bling with glitter paint. Let the final product dry.
Then comes the fun part- shake away! Your child can have a blast making up tunes and songs with a home-made musical instrument.
Conductor Crafting- Painting with Trains and Cars
Toddlers & Up
Put a little spin on a simple activity like painting, and your children will be sold. Swap out paint brushes and fingers for toy cars, trains, and even blocks! Set up dishes of different colored paint for dipping the wheels and bases of toys. Wheels make nifty lines across a canvas, and blocks can be used for stamping various shapes. The variety of “brushes” elevates this activity to a new level of fun.
The best part? Clean up is quick and easy. Make sure to put down a paper or plastic table cloth so you can easily gather up disposable material afterwards. Then throw the toys used into a big bowl of water to soak off the paint, and just like that clean up is complete!
Paper Plate Fans
Toddler Ages & Up
You can keep this craft super simple or get a little bit more in-depth. For the simple version, all you’ll need is paper plates, a pair of child-safe scissors, markers, glue, and a handful of popsicle sticks. If you want to spice things up a bit, add a few containers of paint to add a little fingerpainting to the mix.
Cut Paper plates in half and let your child decorate to their hearts content with markers and/or paint. If you go the paint route, you’ll want to just leave a little bit of time for drying before putting the fans together.
Once plates are decorated, grab two popsicle sticks and glue an end of each to either side of the paper plate at an angle so that the sticks cross at the bottom (see photo). Glue the bottoms ends of the sticks together and let dry. Voila! Easy, decorated paper fans for a fun summer-day art project.
