Toddler Art Activity: Free Art

Finally, a post that is not related to Pinterest! LOL! When I reorganized our craft supplies, I made sure to put together this little art caddy for my 2 year old. I wanted something that would be super easy to pull out, keep organized and put away quickly. I also didn't want to overwhelm him with two many things so I kept it simple: Dot markers in basic colors, some mini stampers, Tadoodles, and a few crayons. 

The Tadoodles stampers are fun and easy to use for little ones. And funny, the parrot sort of looks like a red Angry Bird--my girls noticed this. ;-)

Art fun is new for Kellan. His not a docile kid at all so I've been leery about anything "messy" with him because this kid can make a mess with anything that isn't even remotely messy and then run like the wind so that the mess follows him around the house. So to hand him something that he could really make a mess with, it's just asking for trouble! ;-) But he's doing all right with this so far. He is pretty good at picking a few supplies at once to use and when he starts dumping the supplies out instead of coloring, that's when I tell him art time is over.

He absolutely LOVES the Do-a-Dot Markers! Those are definitely his go-to art supply. They are so fabulous. Their large size makes it easy for him to hold.

And even though he isn't able to get the twist cap off by himself just yet, he works on his fine motor skills because he tries to put the cap back on. He can get the cap back on the top, then he hands it to me to twist.

 

Sometimes, when he gets bored with the art supplies I pull out his sticker pad from Melissa and Doug. And that will get him to engage for a few more minutes. I show him the different pages and he points to what he wants me to pull off for him. Here's one of his masterpieces:

Getting Organized!

I've been inspired to get things organized and cleaned out around here. Whenever I get in these moods, my effort only lasts so long before chaos takes over again. But it's always a good feeling once I do go through everything. I now have a cupboard cleaned out for our light table materials. I moved all the girls' board games out of the cupboard to a bookshelf where they can actually see them and remember we have them. I took half the toys out of my son's room so he only has half as much to dump out on the floor when he's playing instead of taking his nap. And I organized our art corner! I had one big bin before that had a bunch of stuff in it that we hardly ever played with: Fuzzoodles, perler beads, Pixos, random crayons, water colors, and more. I put the Fuzzoodles, perler beads and Pixos in the basement (just in case the girls ask for them at some point). And I purchased four of these bins from Ikea:
I store our art supplies in our kitchen and I loved that these had casters for easy pull-out access. I don't have a "before" photo, but here is our new art corner:
I used paint chip pieces for the tags. I'm not sure how well you can read them. But they are organized into "Craft Kits", "Art Journal Supplies (Mom Only)"--these are for our summer projects and I like to keep them just for that. Then they aren't all over the house--, "Painting Supplies"--all our various paints for messier projects, and "Everyday Art Supplies". Here is the Everyday bin:
I have two sets of Crayola washable paints, so I included some in here. All the foam pieces I cut up for the disastrous mosaic project last summer and the larger sheets I didn't cut up, and a variety of stampers, crayons and dot markers. The items in the white caddy I put together specifically for my two-year old son to have access to art supplies. I wanted something I could get out easily. I've always sort of been the Keeper of the Art Supplies because there are just times when I don't want to clean up the mess or we are about to leave or whatever. The girls both have a ton of stuff in their rooms for creative use (crayons, markers, etc). But the fun thing is that since I've made the "Everyday" supplies available for use anytime, they have been REALLY creative! Check out the laptop my younger daughter made out of the foam pieces!
She finished the main part and then decided that her laptop needed a mouse too. :-)
Isn't that great! So clever! Not anything I would ever tell her to make. She came up with the idea and ran with it. I LOVE it!

My older daughter got in on the fun as well. She got out our iPad and visited the Family Fun Craft app loaded on there. She found this cute little guy:

Image from the Family Fun website

Here's my daughter's version:
And I just have to throw this in because I don't have a good post to include it with. The same daughter who made the little heart guy has an easel in her bedroom and she created this self-portrait this week:
It's amazing isn't it?! She is in second grade. The lips crack me up. She is totally missing her top teeth. I LOVE it!