Hellobee Boards

I let DD "paint" with water. I give her a piece of construction paper (put wax paper underneath if you think it will bleed), a paint brush, and a cup of water and she goes nuts. Or I'll give her a piece of cardboard, a glue stick, and some cut up squares of scrap paper and let her stick them on the cardboard. She also likes to play with an egg carton and pom poms - she moves them all around, sorts by color, etc.

She also likes play doh and the Melissa and Doug reusable sticker pads. I hope someone else comments with good ideas, because I'd like to do more!

Stamps (we got an abc set at Michaels with a coupon but dollar store has little sets sometimes for holidays)
Crayola ultra washable markers (we have regular and stamper ones)
Paint (crayola washable really is washable)
Paint with water book
Play doh (homemade if you worry about her eating it)
Pipe cleaners and pom poms just to play with--LO will sort by colors or bend the pipe cleaners to make shapes

We got Melissa and Doug magnets and a large cookie sheet to play with. We also did homemade play dough, homemade pizza or lasagna - basically anything he could sprinkle toppings and cheese on - and decorated cookies. Color Wonder markers and paper. We made forts with couch cushions or big Amazon cardboard boxes.

You can do little science experiments, like making guesses about what color the water will turn if you put skittles into water (try individual colors, and then mix colors together). You can make the new flubber or slime that all the kids are raging about (tons of youtube tutorials and fun for kids because it requires a lot of kneading. You can start lacing activities, like large beads on shoelaces to make necklaces.

And it's not a craft, but my kids love magnetic sand. They also love sticking pipe cleaners into holes (the younger one) or twisting them into shapes (the older one).

Following!

Is it bad that I just keep on thinking to myself with these ideas "That sounds soooo messy?!" I need to get over it!