These little packs of dot stickers and hole reinforcement stickers were under two dollars each in the Target office supply section yet have been our best recently purchased art material. We’ve gotten so much fun mileage out of them!
I first brought the stickers out the other day at the bakery when a friend and I were trying to have a conversation while both of our toddlers competed for our attention. I’m all for giving the kiddos attention, but I get to see my toddler all the time, whereas only get to see my friend once a week if I’m lucky. This time I was prepared, though, and we got to talk for a good hour (there may have been a few interruptions during that time) and our toddlers were perfectly happy with their simple art activity.
I gave both two year olds a piece of paper torn from a sketchbook as well as a couple sheets of stickers. Juniper was really into overlaying the white hole reinforcement stickers over the colorful dot stickers.
Daphne stuck to the dot stickers but added her own pen drawings on top of each sticker.
She then wanted to do the same on my hand… (The things I will allow my kids to do in the name of a few minutes to chat with a friend! Or a few minutes with a book.)
This sticker art project was engrossing for both toddlers and the finished result is fun and colorful. Here’s one of Daphne’s completed artworks.
Do you have any tricks up your sleeve for keeping your kids quietly occupied while you’re at a restaurant or coffee shop?
I love the little tiny careful marks in each sticker. I’ll have to stick some stickers in my bag, lately the crayons have not been very interesting in time of need.
Lol on the arm drawing. I used to let my nephews and youngest son do that all the time in church. I had completely forgotten!
I have small Sesame Street books that my twin almost-three year-old boys have loved for a long time. They fit nicely into diaper bag pockets. But lately they’ve been much more interested in the pictures on my phone. I taught them how to scroll through the pictures (mostly ones of themselves), and that is now the foolproof way to entertain them when we’re waiting somewhere. I don’t have a nice phone, so maybe it’s easier for me. :) By the way, I discovered your blog the other day and I am SO excited about using your ideas for my boys!
I love the stickers! My nephew likes pirates, so I bought him the Safari Ltd Pirates Toob. He likes to make up stories about the little guys. He’s only allowed to play with them when they go out to dinner or something similar. They’re a big hit.
That’s too funny, that was my exact experience yesterday, coffee with a friend I don’t see very often! I brought a yogurt container with a slot to put in an incomplete set of checkers. When sweet Finn was finished with that, it got a sticker treatment. Then a bit of colouring, and I got a (hot) coffee with a special friend! When Finn is a bit older, I’ll put a small jar of buttons for sorting, exploring etc. My big boys loved this, and they always looked for their favourite. If you look at my pinterest account (dynajenn), there is a link to velrco popsicle sticks which are going to be a huge hit with my three boys.
Great idea! My 2 year old, 4 year old and I like wikki sticks (nice that they don’t take up a lot of room) when we’re out and about. :)
Oh my goodness! Totally brilliant! Thank you for the great idea. My toddler loves stickers.
I can’t believe I still haven’t tried wikki stix! I guess it’s about time I add them to my shopping list.
What a great, DIY idea with multiple levels of interaction! I may give that a try next time. Thank you for sharing!
I like that idea of having a special toy or something that is only brought out for restaurant occasions or similar.
Just followed you and found those velcro popsicle sticks. Awesome!
Welcome, Dawn! So glad you like my blog! The photo idea sounds like it would be good at keeping their attention. Now, if I just took more pics with my phone…
I kept hoping she would keep the pen on the stickers rather than my arm, but I probably shouldn’t have minded.
I know! Maia never (or almost never) made those tiny careful marks when she was little. It’s interesting to see the differences.
Hi! I use the round sticker labels as time killers too:) My seven year old paints them with water colors in big blocks of color and sticks them on everything. The hard part with the water colors, is to not let the labels get TOO wet or they will loose their stick. We have a blog entry we did with them on a candle jar.(http://honeybuttergranola.com/color-dots-candle-jar/) I love all your ideas and find you blog fun and inspiring:) Thanks so much for sharing your ideas with the world.
Have you read the book TEN BLACK DOTS by Donald Crews? With my first grade class, I would read the book then give each child 10 round black stickers. They had to create something different than what was in the book. They came up with some incredible ideas!
Last weekend, I brought a small container of home made play dough (in a glad 4 oz. plastic container) out to a restaurant. It was plain (no glitter or color) because they would be eating and I didn’t want much to clean up while we were out.
It was a huge hit (kids are 4 and 2) even though they play with it at home too!
Also, it is so cheap, so wasn’t a problem to throw it away when it got filthy. :)
I have two young girls obsessed with stickers. Being and artist myself, I found your blog a great starting point, and reminder for ideas to do with my girls. I love that you are developing your kids imagination. You’ve helped inspire many great moments of art around our house, as of late. thanks Can’t wait to try this next time we are out.
Love the idea of using hole reinforcement stickers – must add those to my bag tomorrow! Lately, I’ve been taking nursery rhyme finger puppets for my two-year-old son. They are quiet – even when they’re dropped! – for church and school assembly, and it is possible to sing Humpty Dumpty under your breath in tune!
I love saving the free address label stickers and movie offer stickers (only the appropriate ones of course) for my son to play with. He doesn’t know what the movies are or anything, but he likes peeling and sticking. I’ll have to keep an eye out for those Target stickers!
Great Idea. My son love stickers, this is a great way to create some artwork with them.
Love it. I’ll use this idea for our long airplane flight!