Stories of Play

  • Home
  • Hello There!
  • Play Matters
    • My Beliefs About Children’s Learning
    • Our Home Learning Environment
    • Books/ Blogs for Inspiration
  • Play Spaces
    • Play Room
    • Art Space
  • Invitations to Create
    • Why Process Art/ Invitations to Create?
    • 31 Days of Invitations To Create
  • Shop
    • Shop
    • Cart
    • Downloads
  • Contact

13 Favourite Art Supplies for Toddlers That Encourage Creativity (with Limited Mess)

Homeschool· Invitation to Create

24 Feb

Whenever I post pictures of our dedicated home art space on my Instagram account, there will always be comments and messages asking what are some must-have art supplies I’d recommend for toddlers when starting to stock an art trolley or an art space for the first time.

Art supplies for toddlers to encourage creativity

Where to Start?

There are a bazillion art supplies for kids out there so I get the overwhelm when you are just starting out. How many art supplies should there be? Is there enough variety out for encouraging creativity? How do I ensure my kids won’t be using the art supplies to paint the walls, floors and furniture when they are so accessible? How do I ensure that they don’t just tip everything out in one go?

First things first, let me just say from the get go that mess is inevitable when children are learning to develop their fine motor skills when using the art supplies. Mess will happen when they want to use ALL the materials when trying to explore what each material can do. Mess comes as a result of trying to create and problem-solve. Mess is part of all the wonderful learning that is happening when children are deep in their creative zone exploring and creating. When you look beyond the mess and equate mess with learning, it might be easier to embrace a fully accessible art space and all that comes with it.

Having said all that, there are definitely some strategies with regards to the art materials that you can put in place to minimise and manage (not eliminate) mess. I talk about it more specifically in this post where I outline the thought process behind setting up our art space, however there are certain things you can do to help reduce any mess-induced stress.

Top Tips for Managing Mess

  • Choose materials that are relatively mess-free. Obviously don’t start with something like glitter, or NEVER use glitter if a material like that causes you to break out into nervous hives.
  • Limit the variety that is out and simply rotate the materials more often. Children don’t need 20 over items overflowing on the art trolley to get creative. 3-5 different supplies works too.
  • Start small. If you’re only just dipping your toes into having art materials available to your children 24/7, limit the amount of each variety out. You don’t need an entire container filled with colours pencils or crayons. 5-10 pieces of each item works too so if you have a child with a penchant for tipping everything out, the tidying up still wont be overwhelming for you or your child. A little goes a long way.
  • And as with everything else, teach, give clear expectations and provide boundaries for appropriate use of materials and follow through with consequences

Now without further ado, here’s a list of our Top 13 art supplies for toddlers that encourage creativity with limited mess

(For your convenience, this list contains affiliate links.)

1) Dot Stickers

Dot stickers are probably THE BEST art material for a beginner’s art trolley in my humble opinion. They are so versatile, and can be used in a variety of ways for different age groups. My 1yo toddler loves the simple act of peeling them off the backing and sticking them on a variety of paper/cardboard surfaces. My preschooler on the other hand uses it to create pictures, trace pre-writing patterns, names, shapes etc that I write for her, and so much more. The bonus is that these are 100% #MessFree!

 

2) Dot Markers

Dot markers are like a mess-free option to paint. It’s vibrant and easy for toddlers to use, all without the consequence of paint dripping and getting everywhere. Whilst dot stickers are my favourite resource on our art trolley, dot markers are definitely both my older children’s favourites seeing as they each make several pictures using these every single day. I’m not really one for printables as I’m more of a encourage process art and open-ended art kind of mum but if these are your jam, a quick search on Pinterest for Dot Marker printables will result in a heap of them, perfect for adding to your art trolley/space.

 

3) Paint Sticks

For another alternative to paint, you cannot go past paint sticks. These work like glue sticks so the amount that comes out is very much controlled. We got ours from Daiso and these come in a set of standard bright colours, neon colours or metallic colours. The vibrant colours glide across paper easily, so you get the brilliant effect of paint using a tool that resembles the ease of a crayon. Big tick!

 

4) Ikea Mala Paints

Now I know paint doesn’t exactly say mess-free but if you do want to give that option of free access to paint to your toddler like I did, Ikea Mala paints are definitely your paint of choice. For activities that were supervised, I started off with Crayola Washable Paints. They are amazing, washes easily and I’d highly recommend them. But for something that will be slightly less messy, these are my go-tos.

art supplies - Ikea mala paint

I love that these bottles allow my toddlers to exercise independence in setting up a painting session for themselves. They are able to unscrew the caps of the bottles, squeeze the paint out and then screw the caps back all on their own. No set up on my part, no palettes, brushes or cups to wash at the end, no mess to clean up PLUS all that fine-motor goodness squeezing the bottle, unscrewing and screwing bottle caps.

(Word of Caution: Toddlers will take great pleasure in squeezing copious amounts of paint when they are first introduced to this paint medium so supervise, supervise and SUPERVISE!)

 

5) Paper

art supplies - paper

This is probably a given but do you know that there isn’t just one type of paper you can provide in the art space? Rotating through a variety of different paper types keeps the art area looking exciting, fresh and inviting. Some of the types of paper I’ve offered in the art area include recycled paper (perfect for toddlers who are just starting to scribble and go through stacks of paper every single day), coloured construction paper, post its, lined paper, watercolour paper, paper doilies and a roll of easel paper.

art supplies - paper shapes
art supplies - markers and paper

Another way to keep things interesting is to offer paper cut into different sizes and different shapes, so for instance paper that is cut into A5 or A6 besides the regular A4 size, or paper that is cut into a circle, or different tiny shapes, just as different prompts for inspiring new ideas and creativity.

 

6) Washi Tape

art supplies - washi tape
art supplies - tape resist art

I honestly don’t even know where to start describing my love for this one. They come in all sorts of beautiful textures, colours and patterns, tears easily and adheres to all kinds of surfaces without leaving behind any sticky residue. There are also so many possibilities for using it including and not limited to tape-resist art, creating borders, sculptures and various 2D art. ‘Nuff said!

 

7) Scissors

art supplies - scissors

I consider this a basic tool to have in the art area but for this period of time where I constantly have littles in the house, I only offer child-safe scissors.

 

8) Glue

Another resource that is considered a basic tool for an art space/ table. I personally provide both glue sticks and Elmer’s white glue that comes in a squeezy bottle, but if the idea of excess amounts of glue being squeezed out and going everywhere scares you, simply stick to a glue stick.

Pro Tip: Elmer’s glue stick comes on purple and dries clear, perfect for indicating to toddlers where they need to stick their craft materials on before it dries.

 

9) Watercolours Palette

This is another favourite to paint with as the colours are so beautiful and vibrant on paper. A palette is also such a handy tool to contain ALL the mess that comes with painting as it is incredibly easy to set up and pack up.

We absolutely love our 36-disc watercolour palette and a 12-disc jumbo palette which are both from Micador, but whilst the 36-disc palette might be more suited to a preschooler with more developed fine-motor skills and good control of their wrist, the 12-disc jumbo palette is perfect for a toddler who is just starting out.

Note: This is probably the only art supply on this list that requires more parental guidance at the start in terms of teaching your children how to use them properly i.e. without mixing colours. When I first introduced this to my toddler back then, I was on hand the whole time to teach and model the correct way of using the palette. I repeated the rules that we don’t mix colours and we wash the brush between each colour almost every 5s (even til this day, I STILL have to remind every now and then even though she is now 3).

Pro Tip: I also taught her to count to 10 while getting paint from the palette to ensure that she got enough colour on her brush. Toddlers and even preschoolers are usually quite excited about this medium and in their excitement, most just quickly rub the wet brush once over the disc and bring it to the paper only to get disappointed that the effect is more water than paint. By counting to 10 while rubbing the disc for paint, it helps to transfer more paint to the paintbrush and results in a more vibrant colour on paper. Bonus points for getting to practise counting!

 

10) Washable Markers

art supplies – markers

This would be my choice over colour pencils just because when a toddler is introduced to art materials for the first time, you want to set them up for success and you want to get them excited about creating art so they will want to keep going back to the art space. With colour pencils, it is so challenging to exert the correct pressure when using it on paper. Too soft and the colour is barely noticeable, too hard and the tip easily breaks. Markers on the other hand are perfect, almost like the “baby bear” tool that I bet Goldilocks will approve.

But I know I know. What about our walls and floors?? Which is why I highly recommend washable markers and ours are from Crayola.

 

11) Oil Pastels

As per the above, this would be my choice over crayons for the exact same reason. Bonus points for the option to do activities like a watercolour resist activity, or a dabbing oil over oil pastels with Q-tips activity to get a creamy paint-like effect.

Our set of oil pastels is from Daiso so they are extremely affordable but honestly so AMAZING!

 

12) Play dough

art materials - playdough

Play dough is definitely one of the most versatile and open ended materials ever. It is wonderfully sensory, is fantastic for developing fine motor skills, creativity, imagination and is also useful for exploring various cognitive concepts.

art material - playdough

Offer it on its own or with different props and loose parts as an invitation to play, natural or coloured, smooth or textured, with or without scent. The possibilities are truly endless.

 

13) Recyclables

art supplies - recyclables
art supplies - dot stickers and cardboard

Finally, in my opinion, there is no better way to encourage children’s creativity than to offer a variety of recyclables in the home art area. Besides sparking off conversations about taking care of our environment, encouraging children to look at recycled materials and find creative ways of re-purposing them, you will find that these items will often spark YOUR own creativity in re-purposing them to make activities for your children like the matching activity above.

I love the endless possibilities of recyclables so much that I have intentionally placed our home recycling bin next to our art area. Some of the recycled materials we have on offer include cereal boxes, tissue boxes, cardboard (cut out from packages), toilet paper rolls, cardboard rolls, bubble wrap, egg cartons, milk cartons etc.

 

In conclusion

Selecting the right tools and materials is so important for laying the foundation for children to have a positive experience and therefore positive outlook to engaging in creative activities in a home art area. Children can and should be trusted with good quality materials and it’s only when we give them access to good quality resources and TEACH them how to respect them that they will develop the care and respect towards materials we want them to have.

Toddlers are gonna get messy and dirty. They’re gonna get stains on themselves and probably every other surface within sight and touch. They are still learning how to hold and manipulate materials and if we don’t give them the chance to freely explore, they won’t have the opportunity to learn.

I hope that this post has given you some ideas of how you can provide quality art materials to toddlers in order to encourage creativity with as little mess as possible. But even if it ends up a big giant MESS, please remember that it’s nothing a couple of baby wipes/ a wet cloth / a shower can’t fix. Happy creating! 🙂

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
Share76
Tweet
Pin38
114 Shares

Related

Leave a Comment

« Top 10 Must Have Open-Ended Toys in Our House
How to Encourage Independent Play With Toddlers »

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Hello there!

I’m Jules, a preschool teacher turned SAHM mum to 3 beautiful girls, on our way towards a homeschooling journey and a childhood filled with love and play. So lovely to have you here and thank you for stopping by. Read more…

Let’s Connect

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest

Follow Us On Instagram

Instagram post 2197911181598365327_3576889275 🎉 DAY 5/5 - BLESS A MAMA PROJECT 🎉 GLUCKSKAFER SLATS WORLDWIDE GIVEAWAY!

As mamas, we all want to give our children EVERYTHING we possibly can.

This week, I have teamed up with some incredible heart-centred businesses to give FIVE mums an incredible gift. The gift of seeing their children's faces light up from receiving a beautiful open-ended toy, the gift of seeing their children engage in hours of creative and imaginative play, the gift of creating wonderful memories of play together with them and a magical childhood for them.

Day 5 of this project, the wonderful Brianna @thecreativetoyshop has kindly offered to give ONE of you a chance to win a set of gluckskafer slats FOR A FRIEND. This amazing set is well-loved in our house and used every single day by my girls in various ways.

To enter:

Simply tag a mama friend or two you’d love to bless in this season of gift-giving, a mama who’s had a challenging year or a mama who’d really appreciate some love. Write a note of encouragement to them and let them know they are AMAZING ❤️ That’s it!

This giveaway is open WORLDWIDE and runs to Tuesday 17 Dec 9pm (AWST). Winner will be chosen at random and announced within 48hours after giveaway closes.

Disclaimer: This competition is in no way endorsed, sponsored or administered by Instagram.
Instagram post 2197183429748402563_3576889275 🎉 DAY 4/5 - BLESS A MAMA PROJECT 🎉 AUS-WIDE GIVEAWAY!

As mamas, we all want to give our children EVERYTHING we possibly can.

This week, I have teamed up with some incredible heart-centred businesses to give FIVE mums an incredible gift. The gift of seeing their children's faces light up from receiving a beautiful open-ended toy, the gift of seeing their children engage in hours of creative and imaginative play, the gift of creating wonderful memories of play together with them and a magical childhood for them.

Day 4 of this project, the beautiful Suze @invitationtoplay has kindly offered to give ONE of you a chance to win a curated set of fairy goodies FOR A FRIEND. Included in this set is a gorgeous 300-piece fairy puzzle as well as two exquisitely handcrafted flower fairies.

To enter:

Simply tag a mama friend or two you’d love to bless in this season of gift-giving, a mama who’s had a challenging year or a mama who’d really appreciate some love. Write a note of encouragement to them and let them know they are AMAZING ❤️ That’s it!

This giveaway is open only to Aus residents and runs to Monday 16 Dec 9pm (AWST). Winner will be chosen at random and announced within 48hours after giveaway closes.

Disclaimer: This competition is in no way endorsed, sponsored or administered by Instagram.
Instagram post 2196459307716107955_3576889275 🎉 DAY 3/5 - BLESS A MAMA PROJECT 🎉 AUS-WIDE GIVEAWAY!

As mamas, we all want to give our children EVERYTHING we possibly can.

This week, I have teamed up with some incredible heart-centred businesses to give FIVE mums an incredible gift. The gift of seeing their children's faces light up from receiving a beautiful open-ended toy, the gift of seeing their children engage in hours of creative and imaginative play, the gift of creating wonderful memories of play together with them and a magical childhood for them.

Day 3 of this project, the amazing Amie @growing.kind has kindly offered to give ONE of you a chance to win a set of this beautiful crystal discovery kit as well as her signature sensory play prompts FOR A FRIEND. These gems are perfect as loose parts and the sensory play prompts will make such a wonderful gift for a first time mama/ mama-to-be. Each play prompt comes printed on good quality cardstock with instructions, recipes and how it links  to child development.

Swipe to see some of the ways my children have used the gems and the play prompts.

To enter:

Simply tag a mama friend or two you’d love to bless in this season of gift-giving, a mama who’s had a challenging year or a mama who’d really appreciate some love. Write a note of encouragement to them and let them know they are AMAZING ❤️ That’s it!

This giveaway is open only to Aus residents and runs to Sunday 15 Dec 9pm (AWST). Winner will be chosen at random and announced within 48hours after giveaway closes.

Disclaimer: This competition is in no way endorsed, sponsored or administered by Instagram.
Instagram post 2195728861755703742_3576889275 🎉 DAY 2/5 - BLESS A MAMA PROJECT 🎉 AUS-WIDE GIVEAWAY!

As mamas, we all want to give our children EVERYTHING we possibly can.

This week, I have teamed up with some incredible heart-centred businesses to give FIVE mums an incredible gift. The gift of seeing their children's faces light up from receiving a beautiful open-ended toy, the gift of seeing their children engage in hours of creative and imaginative play, the gift of creating wonderful memories of play together with them and a magical childhood for them.

Day 2 of this project, the amazing team @littletoytribe has kindly offered to give ONE of you a chance to win a curated set of Sensory Play Tray Starter Kit FOR A FRIEND. Included in this special curation is a pack of mermaid rice, a set of bamboo fine-motor tools and a set of 36-piece Grapat coins.

To enter:

Simply tag a mama friend or two you’d love to bless in this season of gift-giving, a mama who’s had a challenging year or a mama who’d really appreciate some love. Write a note of encouragement to them and let them know they are AMAZING ❤️ That’s it!

This giveaway is open only to Aus residents and runs to Saturday 14 Dec 9pm (AWST). Winner will be chosen at random and announced within 48hours after giveaway closes.

Disclaimer: This competition is in no way endorsed, sponsored or administered by Instagram.
Instagram post 2195003404047574024_3576889275 <GIVEAWAY CLOSED! WINNER TO BE ANNOUNCED ON MY IG STORIES WITHIN 24HOURS> 🎉 DAY 1/5 - BLESS A MAMA PROJECT 🎉 CONNETIX TILES WORLDWIDE GIVEAWAY!

As mamas, we all want to give our children EVERYTHING we possibly can.

This week, I have teamed up with some incredible heart-centred businesses to give FIVE mums an incredible gift. The gift of seeing their children's faces light up from receiving a beautiful open-ended toy, the gift of seeing their children engage in hours of creative and imaginative play, the gift of creating wonderful memories of play together with them and a magical childhood for them.

Day 1 of this project, the amazing team @connetix_tiles has kindly offered to give ONE of you a chance to win a 62-piece set FOR A FRIEND.

To enter:

Simply tag a mama friend or two you’d love to bless in this season of gift-giving, a mama who’s had a challenging year or a mama who’d really appreciate some love. Write a note of encouragement to them and let them know they are AMAZING ❤️ That’s it!

This giveaway is open WORLDWIDE and runs to Friday 13 Dec 9pm (AWST). Winner will be chosen at random and announced within 48hours after giveaway closes.

Disclaimer: This competition is in no way endorsed, sponsored or administered by Instagram.
Instagram post 2194785760337935112_3576889275 Just over a week ago, I took a much-needed social media break.

I know that I'm often posting pictures and videos of my children enjoying beautiful imaginative play in our beautiful play area filled with beautiful open-ended toys.

To be completely honest, I was starting to feel the weight and responsibility of having "influence". We are so incredibly blessed (thanks to family and to the various collab opps I've received as a result of having this account) and I began to feel that I might be contributing to some mums out there feeling inadequate or less than.

Over the week of BF/CM sales, I got especially triggered and overwhelmed when my IG feed got bomboarded with endless posts of sales and I was reminded of my first Christmas as a first time mum.

The day is Christmas Eve 2016.

I was a new(ish) mum with an 11mo and 5 months pregnant with our second. We had just pretty much wiped out all our savings moving from Melb to Perth, buying a new old car, and renovating our old new place.

We were staying with my in-laws while we were getting our place move-in ready. Our belongings were still in boxes on a container somewhere in the middle of the country making its slow way to us.

As I finally lay down in bed next to the hubs that night after a long day of chasing after a nearly 1yo, all the emotions that I'd kept inside of me all day bubbled over and I bawled my eyes out -

It's bub's first Christmas and we have nothing planned for her.

We don't have money to buy her a Christmas present.

We don't even have a Christmas tree this year.

We haven't created any new Christmas traditions for our family #nomatchingChristmasPJs.

She's not going to have any pictures or wonderful memories of her first Christmas. ** 😭😩🥺**(this went on for almost an hour)

Even as I'm typing this story now, I can still feel the raw emotions of that night as fresh as if it just happened.

I compared myself to all the other moms and felt like I wasn't a good enough mum.

I felt less than and inadequate.

As a first time mum back then, I put so much weight on my identity as a mum on the things I did or didn't do for her, on THE THINGS i could/ couldn’t buy for her (cont👇🏼)
Instagram post 2185584355831981562_3576889275 “Screen-time at 9am is non-negotiable at our house”

Yesterday in my IG stories, I put up a photo of my children watching TV with the above caption and I got DMs like the following.
.
“Glad to see that it’s not just at our house”
“Thank you for keeping it real that screen time exists even for your kids”
“So it’s normal then!”
.
Friends, screens is not a DIRTY WORD.

Letting your children watch TV is not something to feel guilt or shame about as a parent.

And here’s why

1. There are some amazing programs out there that do in fact ADD to children’s play and creativity and if you’re INTENTIONAL and SELECTIVE about what they watch, TV can definitely be considered a tool for learning. Playschool is a great example and it’s the reason why I unashamedly make it a part of our daily routine. I turn on the TV every single day at 9am even without them asking for it.

2. Self-care. And this is with regards to us KEEPING OUR SANITY while having to do/ having done all the things #TheJuggleIsReal

Trying to get dinner ready but your ravenous and overtired cranky kids are hanging off your legs during witching hour? Stayed up all night with a teething baby/toddler only for the preschooler to be up and ready for the day at 5am?! 38 weeks pregnant and have maxed out your energy levels playing with your active toddler on the ground and reading the same book about 2800 times?

Use TV as a TOOL and don’t feel guilty about it!

Now I’m not saying go ahead and use TV freely to entertain your kids with abandon and without a second thought. I mean this IS a play account and I teach parents about the power and value of creative unstructured play in my program and more TV time obviously means less creative play time. Plus there are heaps of simple and easy play ideas out there to entertain your children.

What I’m saying here is when you’re INTENTIONAL about how it’s used in your household - whether for learning or for your sanity, and not simply defaulting to it because it’s EASIER, don’t be guilty about it!

As for the question of how much screen-time is ok or what’s optimal for children and tips to reduce screen-time in your household, please stay tuned to parts 2 & 3 :)
Instagram post 2184784646058246687_3576889275 Stepping into Monday after a rough weekend and a rough morning feeling ALL the emotions and telling myself it’s ok to be feeling all of them.

It’s ok to love motherhood, but not love every minute of it.

It’s ok to love them, but have days where I just don’t want to be in the same space breathing the same air as them.

It’s ok to admit that sometimes time with the dishes feels more enjoyable than time with them.

It’s ok to be so thankful and feel so blessed for the opportunity to stay home with them, and still resent the fact that there are days where it feels like the hubs “get to” go to work and I’m “left” with them.

It’s ok to feel so heart-burstingly full and yet so empty.

The paradoxes of motherhood is an enigma that I’ll never fully understand and that’s ok.

And it’s totally ok that I don’t really have a deeper point to this post other than the fact that I just wanted to hear -

It’s ok.
It IS hard. Soooo hard.
I understand.
Me too.

#storiesofplay_motherhoodtales
Instagram post 2181256147896782711_3576889275 Hands up if you feel like you often have to “force” your children to learn?

Well maybe that’s not true for you. But how about the fact that your children can’t focus for more than 5 minutes on an activity that you’ve set up, even if it totally screams FUN?

This video here is a snapshot of my 3yo engaged in some playful learning about flags all from her own initiative. It went on for more than 20min and this is not something uncommon in our household, with topics ranging from the age-appropriate to the downright crazy, like sewage pipes crazy and “how does our food become poo” crazy #ToiletHumourIsBigHere

The key to authentic, child-led learning is exactly that - AUTHENTIC and CHILD-LED. 
Our role as a parent in encouraging our children to learn is to
1) Be present
2) Listen to their questions
3) Show them where to find answers (not tell them the answers so don’t worry if you don’t know the answers)

We’ve just come back from holidays in Singapore where my 3yo saw the 🇸🇬 everywhere and so she drew that, before deciding she wanted to draw the Perth flag next. Sorry no such thing darling but there’s the 🇦🇺 flag if you want. Except I didn’t know how to draw it and so we looked at a book together. And then she fully took over. And went on to work on Argentina and Algeria. And decided to write the countries initials next to the flags to identify them.

Authentic learning at its best :)
Load More... Follow Stories of Play on Instagram

Recent Posts

  • The Benefits of Working on A Vertical Surface for Children’s Development
  • How to Encourage Independent Play With Toddlers
  • 13 Favourite Art Supplies for Toddlers That Encourage Creativity (with Limited Mess)
  • Top 10 Must Have Open-Ended Toys in Our House
  • The No. 1 Toy in Our House: 10 Ways My Kids Play With Magnetic Tiles

Categories

Archives

  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • February 2019
  • November 2018
  • August 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclosure

Copyright © 2019 · Refined theme by Restored 316