How to Nail Crafting with Your Toddler – (Continuation of @thrillofhome)

“The key is to stay calm and not worry about everything. Really be present and just remind yourself any and all messes can be cleaned up. If you hope for the best and prepare for the worst, you cannot go wrong!”

@thrillofhome – Alyssa

I have a major fear of organized activities with my kids… when I’m the one in charge. What comes to mind when thinking of attempting an organized activity is defiance and tantrums from my three year old. I think of tense moments of telling her what to do and having her do the exact opposite.

I think of recipes going wrong and…. honestly I think of the house blowing up. I’m terrified. I don’t even understand how elementary school kids do those cooking competitions and make creations better than I can.

So clearly if that’s the case, it’s worth the potential hazards, if in the end kids can become skilled at whatever we put them to do. Especially after seeing the amazing creations blogger @thrillofhome Alyssa, does with her kids; I feel there’s definitely something special my kids and I are missing out on.

So I asked my blogger friend for some helpful tips of how to control the potential chaos that can come with doing an organized craft with our kids. To read a blog post of her response to my questions click here.

I love her quote, “hope for the best and prepare for the worst”. My version of “preparing for the worst” is usually to simply talk myself out of the idea of doing a craft with my kids. However with the encouragement of my good friend Alyssa from @thrillofhome, I decided to take an alternative route.

I asked who I believe to be the ultimate child whisperer, Aunty Kayla, to come over and help me brave craft time with my kids. This was my version of preparing for the worst.

Aunty Kayla was there to basically keep me sane. She was quick to clean up messes and help my three year old stay focused on the task. She had the perfect amount of energy, (as much as I didn’t have), to keep the kids engaged.

We decided to do a craft recommended by Alyssa that would be perfect for babies:

“My favorite baby “craft” was adding food coloring to yogurt and letting him mix and taste right on table of his high chair! It made for the CUTEST video!”

@thrillofhome Alyssa

Now our original idea was to have the baby, Izabella, do the yogurt craft while the three year old, Esperanza, made play dough. But upon realizing the potential of jealousy and tantrums that could come from Esperanza, we decided to start out our first craft time with one craft for everyone.

The kids had so much fun and the mess was controlled! I was so shocked. In fact, now that we’ve tested out this particular craft, I now feel empowered to do this one again on my own.

So in light of how great this evening went we decided we would do another craft time when Aunty Kayla visits. We’re so excited to try out more craft time ideas with @thrillofhome Alyssa. For more fun ideas and great tips to make your craft time with kids enjoyable, click here!