I LOVE craft and Boston likes creating HUGE mess so I am trying to embrace art that allows a bit of both. Art/Craft/Sensory play is a fantastic way for toddlers to explore colour, texture, physics and a whole lot more. I need to be honest here and say we haven’t embraced a lot of art in our house. Boston’s delayed fine motor skills, short attention span and tendency to put everything new in his mouth has presented challenges and at times straight up annoyed the poop out of me (I am human, there I have admitted it). But the benefits and development growth that regular creative play brings are far too important for me to keep putting art on the too hard shelf. Here are two activities that are fun, easy to make with household items and eatable to a certain degree 🙂 Dry Food Exploration We mixed together a little of everything. White rice, brown rice, beans, lentils and barley. Boston loved running his fingers through it all. He is also in the process of perfecting tipping and turning skills (like drinking from a cup). Adding a plastic cup and funnel gave him a chance to test his skills in a place other then onto our kitchen floor. The whole tray or goodies eventually ended up on the grass and some found Boston’s mouth.   Magical Goop! Has anyone played with cornflour and water?? Oh my gosh my world has been changed forever!! Mixing these two simple ingredients gives you a substance that feels firm when you touch and pick it up… but then instantly turns to running goopey goodness. To be honest I played with it about 300% longer then Boston but I still see it as a success. My wonderful mum helped make ours, I think you can perfect the recipe to your own liking, but here are the basics;

• 2 cups Cornflour
• 1 cup Water
• Mix cornflour and water together in a large container
• Add food colouring if desired

Hopefully our fun afternoon of creative play will give you a little inspiration to take art off the too hard shelf and spread it around the lawn.

Let me know of any creative activities you explore with your littles, what are your favourites? what are their favourites? any disasters?