Crafts & Toys

[Lee-Bee]

We dont do crafts but do open ended art. I aim for painting once a week, glueing once a week, playdough once a week (not really art but a means of creativity) and markers and stickers once a week. We also do random on the fly projects… yesterday I taped a roll of paper to driveway, squirted finger paint on it and let then smear it and walk through it. Then hosed the kids down.

I have just created art bins for each child with paper, crayons, markers, stickers and scissors with the intent to leave it out during afternoon freeplay. This is huge for me as I do not allow markers, stickers or anything to leave the table. We'll see how it goes!

I do not throw anything out. We paint papertubes, chunks of styrofoam, egg cartons… pretty much everything. For glueing, again I do not throw anything out. I chop up all gift cards, wrapping paper, gift bags, tissue paper, cardboard etc. I put it all in big bags and fill a bowl with it for them to glue into collages. The only cost is the glue. I buy the big jugs of glue and reuse a couple of small 2oz bottles. They can drain it as fast as they want but no refills. For painting, again it is just the cost of paint but they dont use that much since they paint something from recycling.

Anyways… my advice more art less crafts. You should not have to cut anything, trace anything or really prep in anyway. Just give them paint and a brush!

[Lee-Bee]

Not sure if you are looking for play food or a play cash register. But for play food I highly, strongly recommend this set: http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Resou...ords=play+food

It is NOT wood but a high quality rubber. They are amazing. I will note I did a ton of research and chose this set because it is easy to wash. Wood is not so easy to clean AND the wood food quickly chips/scratches and doesn't look good.

This food set is great...it has 'real' food not 36 French fries and 8 donuts like most plastic food sets!! It is superior compared to strandard plastic food. It is very realistic looking and feeling and is just great!!