I watch my cousin's daughter 1-2 times a week, she is about 7 months older than my boys. On the days she is here, we try (key word try, it just does not always happen) to get in some kind of an art project and/ or lesson.
Being that my boys were not quite two (this was some time ago, I'm a slacker when it comes to posting), and Little Miss is just over two, we're not covering anything major. We have been working on our shapes.
First we made a felt pizza with all circle shapes (idea found here). I went with the colors I had, so we had yellow dough, orange cheese, brown sausage, red pepperoni, and green bell peppers. We talked about each shape/color/item as it went on the pizza. It has become a fun new little play set for them.
A little later we made pizzas out of construction paper. Before this we had not done a lot of pasting, mostly just painting, because I did not think they would grasp gluing something onto something else (from trying once before). I think having made the felt pizza before really helped them get it. Little Miss got way into it and glued lots of stuff onto her pizza. Mr. W. added some pretty pen marks to his. Mr. A. is not much into art. He will do it for a minute, but I think it requires too little body movement for him.
Another day we did some circle prints, I had various circle things that they kidlets could dip into paint. We had empty toilet paper tubes, empty ribbon spools (I always keep them, even though I have a ton, because they just feel like an art project waiting to happen), jar rings, etc. I just choose one color because otherwise it tends to get too messy (and I really am the messy art mom, but three toddlers and paint, yeah...)
We also made a felt snowman. I did not get any extras made for him, just the three white snowballs, and I showed the kids how we make a snowman (out of felt anyhow). And of course we sang Once There Was a Snowman. I then tried to have them glue their circles on a white paper, they were less than interested. I mostly glued it for them. We also added some white tiny snowflakes (paper punch excess) for them glue. Mr. A actually loved that and added quite a few to his, Little Miss was not at all interested, and Mr. W. liked it just fine.
Doing craft-y things with the littles has been fun for me. I enjoy watching these three entirely different personalities and learn their different interests and strengths, even in their twos. I am constantly testing what I think will work well to keep three little ones interested. If it were just one child, it would definitely be easier to do actual lessons, but with three, I am finding it so much trickier. But mostly, as long as they are having fun and experiencing new things, I count it as a win.
As a second win, Little Miss was saying "cir-cuh" when her parents came to get her, and she said it again the next time she came, and Mr. A. was saying it too. And a few months later both A& W can identify a circle. :)
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