Those of you with young kids

[Reedusstalker]

I am going to start babysitting a 1 year old and am almost 3 year old girl. I want to come up with some games or crafts or something to do with them. My two are 12 and 14 so it's been awhile. Ideas?

[CherryTreez]

My two year old loves stickers. It's his favorite crafty thing. coloring, foam blocking, finger painting, and books.

[jas]

Painting on canvas. Use their hand prints as tulips and paint the stems... Something the parents can keep and the kids love getting their hands in the paint.

[carterscutie85]

Playing with unscented shaving cream was always a hit when the kids were younger. Just put a sheet/tarp.etc down and let them have at it.

[mrsmacgiver]

Mine aren't that young any more but I like the idea of a car bubble wash station. Or, freezing things in ice and having them break the ice apart to get to them.

[Oliviasmom72]

Bubbles. Chalk. Etch-A-Sketch. Crayons and coloring.

[Deleted User 172]

I am going to start babysitting a 1 year old and am almost 3 year old girl. I want to come up with some games or crafts or something to do with them. My two are 12 and 14 so it's been awhile. Ideas?

Mine play 'the floor is lava'. Maybe a less scary version of that.

[Deleted User 172]

create an obstacle course.
Silly pictures, have them color their own backgrounds and pose in front of the camera for the pictures for their parents. Gardening if the parent's dont mind them getting messy.
What restrictions do you have?

[mommy_jules]

You have dance parties in the living room. My kids like that a lot even the almost 9 year old. My 2 year old's favorite thing to do is play in the dirt/mud and run. He loves to be chased, so a game of tag or something similar would be fun.

[CotterpinDoozer]

I have an almost 7 and a 4 YO

A big hit in my house is making patterns. Like, dump out the Hotwheels/Shopkins/whatever and only use let's say the red and blue and make a line that goes red/blue. Not sure why but my kids love that. Or a shape pattern things like that.

We've done this craft for the past 3 years: We call it the thankful tree, but any tree is awesome. Draw or print out the base of a tree, then use finger paint and dip their fingers in it and let that be the leaves. We also write what we're thankful for. We do that around Thanksgiving time lol.

Another big craft around fall is we lived in an area that had an abundance of acorns. We collected them, then glued them to frame I bought at the dollar store. It was a really super cute little craft and we ended up gifting one to my aunt, who really liked it.

Use fruit that's gone bad, and dip it in paint, then the kids can stamp it onto paper, it turns out pretty neat. Be on top of them though, last year we did have a kid try and eat a corn smothered in blue paint. Yay for non-toxic lol

Check out the DT, there are all sorts of fun stuff, especially for holidays, but you can get lots of crafting supplies. I think I still have a website that has a lot of ideas for crafts and printouts, I can PM it to you if you'd like.