So, painting/crafts with a 16 month old....

[Chirpygirl]

It is miserable outside, comlpetely torrential and I am bored with crayons so I want to get the finger paints out, but my living room is carpeted and the kitchen is out of bounds to DD as it leads to back hallway which is full of lovely dangerous things so how am I supposed to fingerpaint with her? Do I put her in the highchair or put a mat down in living room and cross my fingers?

Or does anyone have any other ideas for what we can do?

thanks!

Anyone? We're BORED! We've been swimming and had a read but now DD is just chucking her toys about and crayoning on the walls!

wellies, old clothes, raincoat and go puddle jumping

she will love it, then you can come home and have a warm bath together

Thanks, but we've done that every day, it's like a solid wall of water out there, I am saving that for this afternoon if it doesn't let up!
That is normally our default rainy day activity (although not so much jumping in puddles as dipping hand in and drinking them)

I just sat her in the highchair and we got a couple of sheets of handprints before she got bored....oh well....!

Good one for the highchair is a tray of cornflour and water to mess about in. In the long term I recommend getting a plastic decorators sheet from a DIY shop for the living room floor - much more coverage than a plastic mat. Then you can do potato printing and all sorts. Get a roll of lining paper too and she can lie on it while you draw around her, then she can colour it in. The other thing I used to do with mine at this age was make lift the flap books. Like Where's Spot, but Where's DD? You can cut out random pics from catalogues for under the flaps and last one has a picture of DD under it.

They're great ideas rosa, thanks! I do have a B and Q plastic sheet loitering in the pack upstairs so shall hunt it out.
I like the lift the flap books as well, and as she has destroyed most of my tesco direct catalogue I may as well finish the job.

Trinity - we went for a puddle jump as the rain tailed off, and she fell asleep as I was carrying her home! have changed her into dry clothes and changed her nappy and she didn't wake for either...am off to have a kip myself before she wakes up!

Can you get some funky foam shapes? They sell them in Hobby Craft, if you've got one near by. Most of the shapes are self-adhesive and they come in all sorts of shapes, sizes and designs. I think I've also seen them in Wilkos and Patners the Stationers. Lots of fun and absolutely no sticky mess!!

Have a look at this site , it was posted on Moneysavingexpert but it has some really good ideas of things to do (it says they are spring orientated but a lot of them you can do at any time of year.