Guest Post by Paul from www.cre8ivekidz.co.uk
Creative ideas for toddlers
Early childhood is a vital point in life when it comes to your child’s social, intellectual and emotional development.
A large percentage of learning will take place in the first 6 years of your child’s life. Your child’s capability to learn will continue for the course of their life but will not be as intense as it is in these years.
As a parent what you do and what you expose your children to will have a major effect on their development, they need positive learning experiences to aid with development and what will effectively be the foundation for further educational progress.
In the past art has not been seen as a fundamental part of the educational process, more of a treat or leisure activity but in the more recent years it has come to light the importance of basic creative activities and learning to understand and value visual elements that are now essential parts of the building blocks for your child’s future development.
Visual Learning:
Most of what we learn estimated at 80% is from what we see; Drawing, sculpting with clay or creating a collage all help develop visual and spatial skills.
For example most toddlers these days would be able to operate a smart phone or tablet all before they can even read a sentence. This is all achieved through the child taking in visual information be it a colour, a picture or both and associating it with an action.
Hands and fingers are the best place to start when it comes to art tools, then it will be on to the brushes, crayons and chalks.
It’s not advised to rush your child into creating anything particular. Allowing them to choose what they would like will actively encourage decision making and individuality. It is also a good idea to let them play with pliable material such as play dough or clay which can be bent, rolled or shaped in to pretty much anything, developing reasoning and think skills and creativity.
Our Djeco Light Clay Super Heroes is a fantastic creative light modelling clay kit from the Djeco art and craft range, perfect for the younger children.

Djeco Light Clay Super Heroes uses the colourful cardboard pieces which can be stuck into the naturally drying modelling clay to create enjoyable Super Hero characters. The light clay included in this modelling kit is easy to work with so young children can easily make shapes, Straightforward fun to keep them entertained for hours and increase their creativity and visual learning.
Motor Skills:
When it comes to motor skills a lot of the movements used in the making of art, for instance scrawling with chalk or crayon, holding a paintbrush or cutting shapes out are all essential areas when it comes to your child’s fine motor skill development.
Using scissors will help develop your child’s dexterity which will ultimately be needed for writing. Drawing with chalk or crayons is ideal for gaining skills in holding and grasping as well as increasing their visual insight and imagination but always a good idea to limit the variety of colours so at the same time not overwhelming them.
Djeco Animals cut outs are a fantastic activity for younger children. Each of the animal pictures have dotted lines around to guide. Simply cut around the dotted lines for lots of pictures that can be used for making mobiles, creating scenes with paper and glue or even labels for presents.
Encouraging concentration and hand to eye co-ordination perfect for developing motor skills the Djeco Animal cut outs make a perfect small gift or party bag filler. The Djeco set comes in a beautiful little box to store your cut outs and contains 50 images to cut out.
Decision Making:
Art education has now been proven to improve critical-thinking and strengthen problem-solving skills.
The experience gained when creating a piece of art when having to make decisions
When it comes to making a piece of art there will be a lot of decision making involved in the process providing plenty of experience exploring, thinking, experimenting and trying new ideas all of which will benefit your child in all future aspects of life.
Permitting your child to make these choices lets you show respect for their opinion at the same time not losing your position as the parent.
Practicing basic choice making will eventually lead to your young ones being able to take control of their own lives. If your child is not allowed to make these decisions now, they might not be able when it really counts.
The Melissa and Doug Blue Colouring Book is ideal, allowing your child to choose not just what to colour in but what colours it’s going to be. The jumbo multi themed colouring pad has 50 pictures printed on high quality bonded paper. Ideal for crayons, markers, paints and pencils.
Dinosaurs, vehicles, football, pirates, princesses and many more themed pictures to colour.
If you found this information useful and want to see more products ideal for inspiring your child’s creativity why not visit our site www.cre8ivekidz.co.uk
Tags: Crafts · Guest Post · Toddler Crafts · ToddlersNo Comments.

























