Many women enjoy the hobbies of arts and crafts.  When there are children running around the house, it can make it difficult to continue the enjoyment of arts and crafts.  There is only one solution for this problem, and that is to get your toddlers involved with you on some simple arts and crafts tasks.

A great, safe way to get your kids involved with your crafts projects it to make things with popsicle sticks.  You can have your kids decorate the popsicle sticks with markers to their liking.  Make sure you purchase washable markers.  Also, go for quantity, not quality, because more often than not your toddlers will forget to put the lids back on the markers. 

After they finish putting color on the sticks, find some pictures.  You can use photographs, pictures out of magazines, or use a picture of them.  Use the popsicle sticks as a frame for the picture.  After this, tie a string to each side of the picture, so you can hang it anywhere. 

I am sure you have heard of macaroni necklaces.  Every toddler should get the thrill of making their first macaroni necklace.  Just put some macaroni in a jar, add some food coloring, and shake them around until you get the color you are looking for.  Repeated this process until you get a satisfactory amount of color.  Let the macaroni dry on paper towels. 

After you get all of the macaroni colored and dry, provide your toddler with a piece of shoestring or yarn.  Make sure to tape one end, so the macaroni does not fall off.  Once you show them how to put the macaroni on the string, it will be easy for them.  Let them pick the colors and design.

Then there is the always famous sock puppet.  If you haven’t heard of the sock puppet, this one is simple.  All you need to do is decorate a sock with a mouth, eyes, and nose.  A sock puppet can provide hours of entertainment for toddlers and can be made within minutes.

Another entertaining (and slightly messy) crafts idea is making art out of fruitloops.  First, open the box of fruitloops and sort them by color.  After you get all of the colors sorted, put them in a zip-lock baggy.  Crush them in the baggy until they get a sand-like appearance.  After you have all of the colors crushed in baggies, you can put them in layers in a baby food jar.  All of the fun of sand, without the risk of worrying about your toddler eating it.

Your toddler will certainly enjoy making binoculars.  All you need is two paper towel rolls, a  hole punch, glue, and yarn.  First, glue the two paper towel rolls together so they look like binoculars.  Next, punch a whole in each side and tied the yarn to each side.  Do this so they can wear the binoculars around their neck like a necklace.  Let them look through the binoculars and describe what they see.  It is always fun to give them the impression that they are able to see things that you can’t.  Like they have special powers with their binoculars.