Parents of Tots

Materials:

• Sturdy paper plate
• red ribbon
• red, white, and pink craft paint
• craft glue
• hole-punch
• craft scissors
• newspapers

Directions:

• Spread some newspapers over your work area.
• Cut the paper plate in half. Place a stream of the craft glue along the rounded inner edge of one side of the paper plate. Take the other half of the paper plate and place it on top of the other, with the inner side facing inwards. You should now have a pocket shape. Allow the glue to dry.
• Once the glue has dried, let your toddler help you cover the outside of the basket with the red craft paint. Allow the red paint to dry.
• Once the red paint has dried, add small hearts using the white and pink craft paint. Allow the paint to dry. For an easier method, use markers and stickers instead.
• Make 2 bows out of the ribbon. Using the craft glue, glue a bow on each side of the basket.
• Cut off an 8" length of the red ribbon. Thread the ribbon through one of the holes. Tie a knot in the ribbon on the inside of the basket. Repeat this process on the other side.
• Give the basket to your toddler and let her put any valentines she gets in the basket.

With this valentine your child's words can hang around long after he's moved on to other love interests. Best for kids 3 and up, with help from an adult.

Cover work surface with newspaper. Lay the heavy paper flat, the long way. Use the paintbrush to apply Mod Podge horizontally to about a third of the heavy paper, and then arrange overlapping tissue paper strips and hearts on the Mod Podge. Apply another coat of Mod Podge atop the tissue paper. Repeat this process in two more sections until the entire piece of heavy paper has been covered. Let dry completely, about 2 hours or overnight. Trim any tissue that hangs over the edges of the heavy paper. Then roll the decorated paper into a cylinder, overlapping the edges by about an inch, and staple it at the top, bottom, and middle. With the permanent marker, write "I love when we ..." near the bottom of the decorated paper.

For an easier method, just glue and/or tape red/pink construction paper on an Oatmeal container and glue on cut-out hearts.

Use glue to attach ribbon to the top edge of the decorated cylinder, and the bottom edge.

Use the pencil to trace a heart 6 times onto the orange card stock (or construction paper) and 6 times onto pink. Cut the tracings out. Use glue to attach ribbon in the center of each heart (same color on each side).

Ask your child to tell you 6 things he loves to do with the person he plans to give the mobile to. Write one on both sides of each heart.

Trim 6 red ribbons into varying lengths from approx 15 to 20 inches. Tape tops of ribbons on the back of the cylinder.

To hang the mobile, punch 2 holes opposite each other on top edge of the cylinder, just below the bottom of the ribbon. Thread a 20-inch piece of ribbon through one hole and knot it inside the cylinder. Repeat with the other end at opposite hole.

Materials:

• Craft scissors
• red or pink construction paper.

Directions:

• Using scissors cut out several large heart shapes from the red or pink construction paper.
• Cut each heart in half vertically, using different types of cuts for each heart. For example, use a curving or zigzagging motion while cutting down the middle of the heart.
• Place the heart halves on a table in front of your toddler. See if he can match the halves correctly.

Note: This would also make a fun activity for a toddler Valentine’s Day party. Each toddler could be given half of a heart and would have to find the other toddler who has the matching half.

Materials: 2 cups Ivory Snow, ½ cup water, toothpicks (with sharp edges filed down), twigs, cloves, shirt buttons, a strip of felt, seed beads, cardboard egg cups and pipe cleaners

To mix up a batch of faux snow, pour the Ivory Snow in a bowl with the water and whip with an electric beater until the mixture is doughy.

Shape the damp soap into three balls. Stack them by gently pushing a toothpick halfway into the center of the bottom ball. Then, push the middle ball down onto the toothpick until the two balls touch. Do the same for the snowman's head.

Now, add twig arms, clove eyes, shirt buttons, and a felt scarf. To make a smiling mouth, press on a row of seed beads. For a mini carrot nose, color the tip of a short twig with orange paint. For a hat, use an egg cup from a cardboard carton. Or craft a pair of earmuffs out of a pipe cleaner.

As the soap dries (this can take a few hours), it will lose its grayish tinge and turn bright white.

Note: Young toddlers will need close supervision and assistance while doing this activity.

Materials: Sheets, blankets and chairs

Make a tent out of chairs and a large sheet or bedspread in any room of the house you choose. Turn the chairs with their backs facing each other and drape the sheet over them. Kids love to play inside of tents and it keeps them busy for quite some time.

Note: Activities should always be supervised by a responsible adult

(as seen in Red Envelope for $39.95)

Commission a toddler masterpiece or celebrate art night with the whole family. Four colorful canvases await handprints, footprints and parent-child collaborations.

How to do it: Paint the base first (regular acrylic paint that you can find at the craft store), then paint his/her hand with a different color of paint. Very carefully help them press their hand down on the canvas, pressing on each part of the hand and every finger. Then on the count of three, we lift the hand off the canvas quickly - like taking off a Band-Aid. Of course it's much easier as your kids get older. Trying to get a one-year-old to spread their fingers, etc. is no easy task.

Added note: While the paint is already on the child's hand, have them do a few more handprints on cardstock so that you have that for their scrapbook, or the family scrapbook, or who knows what you might want it for. But you can't go back and do handprints from when they're younger.

CRAFT MATERIALS: Scissors Medium-sized brown bag Newspaper Glue Googly eyes Red balloon Two large grocery bags Large rubber band

DIRECTIONS
1. To make the head, stuff the bottom of the medium-sized bag with balled-up newspaper. Twist the top of the bag to form a long, skinny neck.

2. Glue the googly eyes and the balloon wattle onto the face.

3. For the turkey's body, use one large bag. Snip a hole through the front of the bag an inch from the bottom and fit the neck into it. Then, stuff the body two thirds full with newspaper. Close the top of the bag with the rubber band.

4. To make tail feathers, cut four large half-circles from the remaining bag and then glue them in layers to the back of the body.

WHAT YOU NEED Fall colors of construction paper leaf shaped cookie cutters or fallen leaves craft glue craft scissors

DIRECTIONS
1. Cut the construction paper into strips of 1 ½ to 2 inches in width. Help your toddler glue the ends together to form a loop.

2. Using the leaves or cookie cutters as patterns, trace around them on different colors of construction paper. Be sure to make stems on the leaves, leaving them a little thick.

3. Cut out the leaf shapes. Let your toddler arrange 2 or 3 of the leaves on the paper loops. Try making different patterns or shapes by varying the number of leaves, their shapes, etc. When your toddler finds an arrangement she likes, glue the stems of the leaves down.

4. Once the leaves have dried, wrap the unglued part of the leaves lightly around a pencil to give them a curled effect. Use these napkin holders on Thanksgiving Day.

CRAFT MATERIALS:

• Cardboard (not plastic) egg cartoncraft scissors
• craft glue; green pipe cleaners
• sheet of green poster board
• orange craft paint
• washable markers.

1.  Carefully cut the cup sections from the egg carton. Depending on the number of pumpkins you wish to have, you may need two egg cartons.

2.  Glue two of the cups together to form a pumpkin shape. Repeat this step until all of the cups have been used.

3.  Once the glue has dried, help your toddler paint the outside of each pumpkin with orange craft paint. Allow the paint to dry.

4.  Once the paint has dried, draw thin vertical stripes on each of the pumpkins. You might also want to add jack-o-lantern faces with the markers.

5.  Glue the pumpkins to the sheet of green poster board.

6.  Carefully poke a hole in the top of each pumpkin with a pencil. Poke a small piece of the green pipe cleaner into each hole to create stems for the pumpkins. You can create vines in the pumpkin patch by curling up more green pipe cleaners and gluing them around the pumpkins.

Note: Activities should always be supervised by a responsible adult.