Lately I have taken to Pinteresting my daughter. I will see something AWESOME on Pinterest and ignoring the fact that Little Fearse is only 19 months old eagerly prepared to engage in some crafting madness with her. This has resulted in many tantrums over hand print ornaments (she didn’t like the texture much, I didn’t want to waste the clay I’d used most of our bi-carb soda making..it was a stand off. Little Fearse won.) It also resulted in Little Fearse walking contact covered with pop sticks and baby pictures around the house giggling madly that her feet were stuck. It has resulted in the eating of much play dough. Little Fearse has scribbled all over her high chair, torn up her drawing book and decimated her tiny stash of crayons.
All of these things are wonderful adventures for Little Fearse and offer her chances to explore new textures and experience new things. I have to try not to feel disappointed when my carefully planned activity doesn’t work out, or ends up destroyed. The clean up often takes much longer than Little Fearse’s engagement in the activity. At 19 months, I’m pretty sure she happier, say, rolling around in the dirty washing than she is doing structured activities.
If I was going to be less honest, I would have just posted these wonderful photos of Little Fearse engaged in crafts and pretended it was all a success.
Dagnabbit, why didn’t I think of that earlier?
Mama xo
The Fearse Family 
Oh how I feel your pain! I have learned the long and hard way to let my toddler craft for ten minutes. Then, even if she is having fun, it gets packed away. She doesn’t get moody with the activity, my house doesn’t get (too) trashed and I don’t get dispirited – and so everyone wants to do it again another day.
That’s a great idea. I guess it takes being organised – at the moment Little Fearse wants to paint often. That’s a pretty messy task, so I have to gear myself up for it, knowing it will only last for 20 minutes max. Parenting is messy, right? Thanks for your comment, I will take your advice next time!
I do it often with Serenity. I find my medium ground is to craft her toys I find on Pinterest for fine motor skills so I see more successful fun then failures but we attempt it once or twice a week anyhow but hey, I always wanted to figure out how to remove red paint (after one of said projects) from my tub when it didn’t scrub off with a little soap like last time. *lmfao*
Eeep, red paint! You’re a brave woman crafting twice a week with a toddler. Go you!