As an artist, I have many sponsored art materials, and I know I don't really make as many artworks so I shared most of my art materials with Sofi. For the past 2 years, she's been playing a lot with various colour materials: pencil colour, water colour, crayons, markers, highlighters, acrylic paints, poster markers, poster paint, etc.
I know it's a bit too much for a 4-year-old, but most of the art materials are mine but she loves them to be on her table instead:
She started colouring around the age of 1.5 years old, and she loves to do it almost daily. By the time she is 3, there are so many fully-used colouring books around. We can't even catch up in buying more colouring books. One thing I make sure of is that she needs to finish colouring the whole page before turning to the next page. So there's no unfinished page.
Perhaps I also need to start teaching her to use blank A3 paper to draw from her imagination instead?
Links to my fav art materials for toddlers :
- Stabilo Woody - love the chunkiness and the vibrant colours
- Stabilo BOSS Highlighter - yes, I know most people use highlighters for studies, but these highlighters set is so much fun to use with a toddler, chonky and vibrant, easy to clean
- Unicorn Poster Paint - also chonky, so easy to fill up a large paper, feels like crayon but more buttery, more colours here
One thing I noticed about toddlers is they have a small attention span so using tiny-tip pencil colours is a bit too slow for them. Use chonky colours instead. Also, painting is also fun for them (not for us to do the clean up later though).
I learned that making them do art is good for strengthening their attention span. Imagine looking at a 3-year-old painting at her desk for 30 minutes straight, undisturbed. It's, an amazing view. I never thought she can be that focused while painting.
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Anyway, for the latest 3 weeks of her school holiday, I bought her a set of Kumon's first-step workbooks. Sofi is almost 4, so I want to hone another motor skill which is to cut paper and paste. She tends to be more crafty & artsy so using scissors would be a great skill to add. As an anxious parent, I started with basic kiddy scissors without the blade (but she manages it just fine).
In this set, there are 12 workbooks suitable for toddlers 2+, mainly on these topics: Let's Color, Let's Cut Paper, Let's Fold, Let's Sticker & Paste. Each book contains 40 sheets. It is a nice school holiday activity for toddlers >> Kumon Workbook Set Here <<
In the first few books, all activities were guided. I need to explain, help, and guide her in the learning process. The Kumon's colouring book section is a bit too easy for her so she didn't like it that much. I think she loves cutting using scissors the most (probably because it's a new tool for her) and she took a few weeks to master the skill. Now she can do all the activities in most of the books by herself. She will sit in front of the tv, watch Peppa Pig, and do the cutting activity all by herself. She can also cut and use glue to paste. She doesn't like the folding part yet so I'm keeping those Kumon's folding books for the time being.
These are all the books that she already finished in a month :
I also don't force her to do activities that she doesn't feel like doing, for example remembering the alphabet, or tracing them. She has her own desk and art supplies, so most of the time, she chooses which arts/crafts activity to do herself.
Other tips : She also has a big file that I use to keep all her artwork from school so she can see them back when she wants to (so I don't have to stick it on the wall). I also bought her cute luggage, that's where she can put all her stickers. So she won't stick stickers all over the place :
Links to more activity books :
- Gakken Activity Books (useful & visually nice, but too fast and only can be used once)
- Usborne Wipe-Clean Activity Book (this is one of Sofi's fav, she reused this so many times)
- I Spy Learn & Go (nice illustration but less activity than the Usborne one)
- Busy Book (locally made, nice illustration, not Sofi's fav)
- My First Sticker Book (nice to play, until they stop sticking up on the pages)
As you can see, I love buying her books. I always experimented with different kinds of books: colouring books, sticker books, busy books, activity books, etc. Personally, I think by 2 years old, kids are ready for their arts and crafts activity - fully guided.
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As for reading, I try to make it a habit to read before sleep time or downtime (around 6 pm+). I let her choose her books and read for her. I started reading to her when she was 3 months old, and I always surrounded her with books so I guess she's used to it by now. At this moment she is still in the 1-5 simple lines per page era. I bought a lot of books that are too advanced for her, so usually, she isn't interested. Picking up the right book is also a learning process for me.
Moving-forward :
- I think having a cellophane tape dispenser will help her in cutting the tape, instead of having to rely on me to cut the tape for her
- Plus, I think I can now upgrade her kiddy scissor to a proper kid's friendly scissor (with blade)
- And I will buy a blank A3 paper for her to draw
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