Is 16 months too young?

[greaselightnin]

Trying to find new things to do at home with my 16 month old DS that doesn't involve playing with the same toys! Is he too young to start trying arts and crafts? Any ideas of fun things to do at home with a young toddler would be appreciated!

I let my 16m old DS paint, he mainly eats the paint but likes messing around with the colours. It entertains him on a rainy day

My DD liked stickers at that age; we used to make cards for people with stickers and she’d do some drawing on them. Glitter glue kind of worked too.

Water play, just a bowl with bubbles

Painting with cars on floor

Sensory play with things to scoop (we use cornflakes so if they eat it it's ok) also cooked pasta.

Nice big chunky wax crayons

Colouring in books - you can talk about the pictures.
Sticking things down.
Potato printing.
Finger painting.

Definitely not too young!

Mix cornflour (or custard powder) with a bit of water in a tray and let him explore it with his hands. Yoghurt is fun yo play with too, you can add food colouring to make it more exciting but at this age he'd probably just eat it anyway.

I used to put mine in a dry inflatable paddling pool in the kitchen with some random Tupperware and some dry uncooked macaroni, lentils, spaghetti etc to play with.

Playing in a dry bathtub is fun too, with small balls or toy cars or magnetic letters which stick to the tub.

I let him draw on the kitchen lino in chalk because it just wipes straight off with a damp cloth.

Pinterest is good for ideas too.

Perfect I'm gonna give all these a go!! Thanks ladies 😁

If you can get outside, bubble blowing, chunky chalks, and mine all really enjoyed a bucket of water and a clean decorating paintbrush to 'paint' the wall/fence etc.
Basic baking is fun too, something like chocolate cornflakes is easy and they can help mix it all up

Mine two absolutely love cloud dough - cornflour and oil. I used baby oil, but I think you can also use vegetable oil. Quite messy!

tinkerlab.com/cloud-dough-exploration/

Also try corn flour and hair conditioner.

www.learning4kids.net/2014/01/23/super-soft-play-dough-recipe/

Or salt dough is brilliant as you can keep the creations. Once cooked, colour them with felt tips or paint and then a bit of varnish. My mum as salt dough decorations on her Christmas tree that I made about 30years ago!!

www.learning4kids.net/2012/12/09/how-to-make-salt-dough-recipe/

If you pop to B&Q, they often have large old rolls of wall paper available for free in bin by the door - we use the non-patterned wide for large scale art. Roll it out on the floor they let them get creative with finger paint, crayons or driving cars over it with painty wheels.

Loving these ideas. We have just been doing some painting, he enjoyed it more than I thought!
Deffo gonna pop to b&q, thanks @razdaz10

@PazRaz10 *