by Briar Miller

Created on: January 23, 2008   Last Updated: December 04, 2011

My 1-year-old daughter has already delighted the hearts of her grandparents with her wonderful crafty creations. Crafts for a 1-year-old can be a messy business, but fun. It's worth putting in a bit of planning beforehand. Here are a few tips:

Preparation

First of all, do not expect to be able to leave her on her own to get on with it while you do the washing up. This would severely limit the range of things she can do, and the quality of the outcome. A one year old needs to be able to handle small things to develop her manual dexterity and hand-eye co-ordination. Most of these ideas involve allowing her to do this. If you don't supervise, she can't do it.

Make sure she is appropriately dressed. Don't spoil things by fussing over her clothes getting messy.
Likewise prepare your work area for minimum stress.

Make sure that the activity is one she can actually do. So often when I was working in playgroups I saw parents doing everything for the child, then praising them afterwards. There is no sense of satisfaction in this, only confusion.

In general, if you have a toddler , it is a good idea to have a stock of basics to hand. In these I would include paint, paper, crayons, glue, fabric oddments, old magazines and a good supply of junk.

A note on glue: Little ones love sticking things and most of the ideas below involve glue. In most cases I would recommend a good glue stick rather than the white pva glue usually used. They are easy to hold and to apply, won't make so much mess, and often actually stick better.

Here are the craft ideas:

Collage

A particular favourite amongst the very young is sticking things onto paper. When the weather is suitable, we like to take the little ones out for walks and they delight in examining all kinds of tiny things that attract their attention. Let her carry a basket to put things in. Flowers and flower petals, leaves, tiny pebbles, feathers etc. When you get home she can stick the things onto paper. It's a good idea to make sure everything is securely stuck down before you hang the picture on your fridge.

Any kind of collage is great fun at this age and is a great opportunity for your one year old to explore textures. If the collages take the form of card for relatives to gush over, all the better:

Gather together a lot of different scraps of material with different textures as well as pom-poms etc. Use big pieces of card, folded in half. Draw some pictures on the front with a good black marker. Your child will guide and advise

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