What art supplies have I missed?

June 4, 2007 10:33 AM

Best art supplies for a four-year-old?

My four-year-old son loves doing arts and crafts. I love having him do arts and crafts, so I can sit and drink tea. Any recommendations for art supplies for projects he can do with a minimum of help and supervision from me?

Past and current hits include:
crayons
pens
paint
scissors (plain and fancy)
glue sticks
pipe cleaners
modeling clay
construction paper
cutting up magazines
stickers
chalk
masking tape

He has a baby sister and astoundingly bad impulse control, so things should be fairly non-toxic and washable.

Quantity, not quality. Stuff that can be bought on-line is good. I've already got everything I can find at Target, etc. Things at toy stores and art supply stores tend to be either really expensive, or an opportunity for parent/child bonding. I'm not looking for projects we can do together -- we have plenty of those -- I want to distract a high-needs kid while his sister naps and Bad Mom reads Metafilter.

posted by The corpse in the library to sports, hobbies, & recreation (31 comments total)

Tongue depressors/popsicle sticks.
posted by piro at 10:42 AM on June 4, 2007

Water-based finger paints, glossy finger-paint paper (that doesn't go all soggy) and lots of newspaper to cover up the table. Yeah, I know, if he has really bad impulse control, maybe not, but my kids neevr did up the walls with it.

paper egg cartons are also good for 3D crafts. And for holding stuff, like foamies.
posted by GuyZero at 10:44 AM on June 4, 2007

My kids (6 and 4) love Crayola's Model Magic. It's like modeling clay, only easier to use, less messy, and dries solid on its own. And, as you'd expect from Crayola, it's non-toxic.
posted by cerebus19 at 10:46 AM on June 4, 2007

If you can trust your child to not break the glass... One of my son's favorite activities is painting our sliding glass door. I take plain old poster paint and give it a squirt of dish soap, hand him a large paint brush and let him go. It's good for a half hour, at least. I sit by the window so I'm in close proximity, but I just let him go hog wild out there. Then when he's done we hose down the door and I get a clean window out of it.

FWIW, my 4 year old son sounds a lot like yours and he's never slammed the glass or been inappropriate with it.

Also, golf tees and styrofoam packaging are an active child's dream! If he has a toy hammer already, all you'll need to get are some cheapo golf tees. I'm not talking about packing peanuts, I'm talking about the big styrofoam stabilizing material that surrounds hi-tech equipent and most everything else in a box. It seems to multiply at our house. So I hang onto it and He comes up with really cool "buildings" and sculptures.

Also, macaroni, wood scraps and feathers are three things I'd add to your cheap but successful list.

Good luck, from one "bad mom" to another.
posted by luminous phenomena at 10:51 AM on June 4, 2007 [2 favorites]

Colored pencils. I loathed crayons when I was little, but I loved colored pencils. Of course, it helped that my dad works in industrial design, and he got the really expensive brand at work and would bring home the nubs for me when they got down to a certain length.
posted by infinitywaltz at 11:01 AM on June 4, 2007

Ditto the Model Magic, my son uses so much of it that I buy it in bulk. The cheapest source I've found for it is here. Buy two boxes and get free shipping. The box contains white, red, blue and yellow packets only but that's enough to mix up all the other colors and note the packs are 1 oz each, as compared to the half-oz packets you normally get when buying MM at stores.

IKEA has good quality yet inexpensive kids art supplies too: a very cute and sturdy easel (~$16), lengthy rolls of kraft paper for ~$7, non-toxic tubes of tempera, watercolor cake sets and jugs of Perler beads (which can also just be strung onto string).

Also, this kind of packing peanut is made of non-toxic starch. Dab them on a moist sponge and they can be stuck together in all sorts of ways. Available cheap at any office supply store in a bag of lifetime supply proportions or pay a lot more to get multi-colored ones.
posted by jamaro at 11:09 AM on June 4, 2007

If you put down a giant radius of newspaper in advance, BloPens might be good.

Evaluate every box that comes your way -- especially big ones. My kid spent many happy hours decorating the inside of a washing machine box, and many more playing in the result. Smaller ones make good action figure/stuffed animal houses.
posted by gnomeloaf at 11:29 AM on June 4, 2007

The local dollar store is a good source for a lot of this stuff. Home-brewed salt dough is cheap and fun too.
posted by craniac at 11:29 AM on June 4, 2007

Crayons. Period.
There simply isn't anything better. Nothing packs more magic in the palm of a little hand than a couple of crayons.
posted by Thorzdad at 11:43 AM on June 4, 2007

Wait a minute, is your child this kid? (Video link, possible surrounding ads nsfw)
posted by TomMelee at 11:46 AM on June 4, 2007

I'd pick up a copy of Steven Caney's Playbook at your library (or for sixty-five cents at Amazon at the moment). It has an incredible array of cheap, fun things to make and do with paper plates, Dixie cups, straws, handkerchiefs, old newspapers, coffee cans, and so on. There's a list of suggested minimum ages in the back. My husband and I both loved this book as kids. I still have my copy.

While you're playing with masking tape, don't neglect its sculptural possibilities.

One of my favorite things to do as a kid was to "paint" our fence with water. The fence was a set of solid wood panels that had been painted dark red, and it was darkened by the water as if it were an enormous Buddha Board. "Drawing" by ruffling up the nap of a carpet was also fun. (Plus it got me to learn to vacuum the carpet at a ridiculously early age.)
posted by sculpin at 11:46 AM on June 4, 2007

As an Art Teacher with the very young I am also fond of Model Magic, Crayola also makes a washable window marker that we like to color on the window, mirrors, etc.
I also like bingo markers, there are several brands made with washable paint and Crayola will be debuting their animal shaped ones this summer in their beginnings line for kids under the age of 2.
Slightly more expensive, but cool are wicky stix, candle wicking with a very thin layer of wax, they stick to paper and other surfaces and then come off neatly and stain free.
I'm sure I have a hundred more and may add them later.
posted by leahsmom at 11:58 AM on June 4, 2007

I know you asked for stuff the kid can do on his own, but here's a couple of projects which require adult help, but the results can keep the kiddo busy.
Homemade play dough. The kid can model things, you help them bake it, and then they get to paint with it.

What to do with those tiny broken bits of crayon: line a muffin tin with foil or paper cups. take paper off the crayons. put bits in the muffin cups. melt them in a warm oven. let cool. you now have nifty multi-colored round crayons. then the kiddo is free to enjoy hours of rainbow-coloring fun.

also: brown paper bags, paper plates, and shoeboxes.
posted by Green Eyed Monster at 12:02 PM on June 4, 2007

that is "paint the resulting sculptures" not "paint with it".
posted by Green Eyed Monster at 12:03 PM on June 4, 2007

Bundled newsprint from the moving company is heaven to a young artist.
posted by happyturtle at 12:07 PM on June 4, 2007

Seconding the salt-dough - it doesn't stick nearly as bad as the commercial stuff. you can substitute kool-aid© flavor packets (10/$1!) for food coloring. The expensive part of that recipe will be the alum, at least at the grocery store. You can get it cheaper online. I cheat and have the breadmaker do the mixing.

My artist will write on anything, furniture, his brother, himself, etc*. Our best investment was a MagnaDoodle, (or two or four) where he could write and write and write and not make a mess nor leave acres of paper behind.

Other things are rolls of newsprint paper - I get them in 100' rolls (3' wide) after Vacation Bible School Season is over for about $3.00 each. YOu can rollout about 10 feet and let loose with all the art supplies. I bought four rolls last year and still have one left. (Hobby Lobby is my source)

Other fun bits are the puffy shaped stickers - those are really cheap at the dollar stores.

My two have an unfortunate habit of wrapping things aroudn their necks, so I haven't done anything with finger crochet, but my baby brother was doing it reliably at four or so.

As noted above, imagination is the best tool to use. The boys are really into Diego now, and while there are backpacks and rescue packs that look just like the ones on the show, I went to the thrift store and got 99 cent fanny packs that do the job for them just fine.

====
*Markers are banned in my house. It's crayons or colored pencils.
posted by lysdexic at 12:11 PM on June 4, 2007

Yarn? Crayons and paint?
posted by kmennie at 12:19 PM on June 4, 2007

Your child can make sculptures or art out of found objects. For instance, save berry containers, egg cartons, extra paper plates, feathers and stones found on walks. Basically anything that doesn't trigger you're "Ew, trash!" reflex can be saved to make a creation with.
posted by Margalo Epps at 12:25 PM on June 4, 2007

Potato prints! (Obviously you'll have to cut the potato.)
posted by hot soup girl at 12:29 PM on June 4, 2007

huh. My kind of thread and my kind of mom.

I cannot recommend kidsart highly enough. You can find a lot of ideas and cheap material. Ebay works wonder on that end too.

Another tip would be playdates. Find another mom like you and say: hey carmina, do you wish to send your child over for an hour or so? This way you get children to interact (i.e. they leave you alone) while playing and next time over, carmina will have to have them over at her place. Schoolmate moms work the best.
posted by carmina at 12:33 PM on June 4, 2007

I have a vague childhood memory of making something by gluing felt to toilet paper tubes. Sorry about the lack of specificity, but I guess my suggestions are felt (cheap) and cardboard tubes (free).
posted by peep at 1:03 PM on June 4, 2007

Envelopes, stickers, and paper (or dollar store packs of ugly stationery ;)), if your kid is into pretending to write and is obsessed with mail.

One of the big chain craft stores (I think Michael's) has a generic line of craft items. I bought about 30 of the "cool" pens (glitter, gelly, fluorescent, etc) for $4 and for that price you don't care if the kids run them into the ground or leave a cap off.
posted by artifarce at 1:49 PM on June 4, 2007

My favorite craft as a kid was decorating my own plain white t-shirts with fabric paint. (Don't underestimate the comedy value years from now when he's in college and comes home and finds all the old t-shirts or pictures of him wearing them, either.) The paint comes in pen-like tubes that eke out the paint pretty slowly, so the potential for huge messes isn't that great. I'd put a smock or a big old shirt on him and let him get busy.
posted by cosmic osmo at 2:04 PM on June 4, 2007

Make wrapping paper? He can paint his feet then walk on it, or you can cut a vegetable in an interesting way (grapefruits work well for this, as do cucumbers) and he can use it to print. Buy a huge roll of butcher paper that he can use for this and other similarly sized large-format projects. My limited experience with kids is that they really like having huge canvases.

PS- watch out for paint-covered vegetable missles
posted by arnicae at 2:41 PM on June 4, 2007

You'd mentioned chalk, but just to be sure, its street chalk and not just the blackboard kind, yeah? All the kids of that age I know (e.g., quite a few freind's kids) are drawn to chalking streets like crack addicts, at least for a while, and are versatile for things like hopscotch, etc.

Also, at a similar age my brother and I were both fiends for these, um, perforated popsicle stick things. Oh, how to describe? Roughly popsicle stick in form but with notches cut in 'em so you can build log cabins and rafts and whatnot. Also they've got score lines on them to make popping off (uh)necessary bits. Mostly just sort of press-together art, but kind of neat and can be glued for a more permanent fit. Probably live next to the craft sticks at your local craft store.
posted by Ogre Lawless at 2:52 PM on June 4, 2007

When I was his age I enjoyed playing with potato stamps

He'll need your help to start with but after they're made he'll be able to play on his own.
posted by Laura_J at 3:32 PM on June 4, 2007

Hey, this is what I do for a living, plus I have a 3.5 yr old boy.

Successful ideas from the past little while:

-We got super-cheap scrap wood blocks from Ikea, painted them and stacked them and knocked them down. That led to us painting various bits of wood in the garden and a bit of the garden path. Speaking of the garden, my son had a ball pruning an overgrown bush yesterday, do you have anything you want cut down to his size?
-Bubbles (gymboree are the best, hands down). I just got a huge bubble wand this weekend that has been a hit (3 metre long bubbles!). If you blow bubbles at construction paper it makes patterns.
- sandbox in your backyard? The perfect place for all your old kitchen stuff to go to die. Make sure to have a "counter" (even a piece of wood or a folding tv tray to shape the mudpies on) or what about a kiddie pool with water and pouring containers, then add food colouring/drinking crystals (not to drink obviously). Good for cool days when he won't be as tempted to hop in the pool. Make boats from Styrofoam trays.
-coffee filter with food colouring in eyedroppers (if you use blue and green it looks like earth). you can also drop paint on a sheet of paper with teh eyedroppers and then blow through a strw tomake patterns or trees.
-home made kites. Where it says "stick" I use a plastic straw. Then make him go outside and run as fast as he can in circles to keep it up. This style of kite works really well, I use crepe streamers to make the tail.
-mobiles made of straw and string, there are lots of different ways to make mobiles, google for some ideas.
-puppets, have him make his own (at the simplest, a piece of paper and a popsicle stick, or use old socks and markers, up to those birds with styrofoam ball bodies and string). Re-enacting fairy tales and nursery rhymes are always popular (incy wincy spider etc)
-windsock, begin with a sheet of paper, have him decorate one side of it, then roll it in a tube and tape/glue/staple it into a cylinder, punch two holes in the top to string ribbon or yarn though and attached lots of long, differently coloured crepe paper streamers to the other end. He can run with it (even better if it is then tied on a stick held up high, or decorate a tree with it). It will not survive the rain. But that means he has to make more!
-I got a pile of plain wooden birdhouse from the dollar store. I have lots of washable paint. That is tomorrow's "leave mummy alone" art project.
-paper plates, the cheap flimsy kind, instant masks (great for being the monsters from "Where the wild things are") with crepe streamer hair, or decorate with markers then starting from the edge cut a spiral into the middle and hang from the very middle, it dangles down nicely (again I hang the crepe paper streamers from the edge - I have a ton of them and I have to get rid of them!)
-black construction paper, liquid glue and all the small bits of nature he can grab - pinecones, leaves, sticks.
-Today we made worry dolls, with a wooden clothes-pin (not the spring-loaded one, the ones that look like people with legs), pip cleaners for arms and yarn to wrap around like an outfit. (all right, all the children lost interest with the wrapping but I made a nice one).
-blank/white puzzles that he can design/colour and then take apart/put together (cheap version is for you to either paint an existing puzzle of have him do the back of all the pieces)
-felt drawing (the fuzzy felt that covers a piece of paper but is blank where they have to colour. I don't think I am using the right term for it. I get them at the dollar shop.) If he has trouble staying within the lines and gets frustrated with his mistakes the black felt is a godsend as it hides mistakes. Ohh, that makes me think of black velvet paintings, I wonder if kids could do that? With the blacklight from the basement in a dim room I bet I could get at least 20 minutes peace.
-we have some paper (crayola?) that is black and when you scratch off the black it is all sparkly underneath. I remember doing something similar as a child, covering paper with crayon and then black paint and then scraping off the paint to make a night scene but I have yet to make it work as an adult, the paint just won't dry on the crayon for me.
-dreamcatchers (don't try to make a pattern at four, just go crazy with the string).
-My daughter just got a dollhouse but my son enjoys it almost as much; today spiderman and the worry doll moved in and rearranged things while she was at school. He also really likes his pirate ship, viking ship and castle. Your son could make his own figures/accessories.
-put coloured sand in saltshakers, have him put liquid glue (as letters, shapes or free-form) on a piece of paper and sprinkle sand over top, shake off the excess. You need to invest in a study placemat/tray with a significant lip around it to contain the sand. A little coloured sand goes a long way, cut it with white sand to stretch it out. Collect all the mixed-together left-over sand in another salt shaker to use.
-time to introduce music. He can make his own instruments (I have a huge stack of snack-size pringle cans with lids we decorate the outside and put different things inside like jingle bells, beans, rocks). If you use long pringle tins put a long bit of twisted aluminum foil inside and some beans and viola, a simple rainstick. At four, drums are always popular, anything can be a drum and can be decorated. But can you stand the noise? Our organ gets pretty heavy use but my boy isn't allowed to decorate it.
-bugcatchers, two tuna tins with a wire hanger threaded through holding them together and screen door netting rolled in a cylinder. Although that one probably needs more of your guidance than you want. The bug catching part you can sit back at watch.
-marbleworks, build a racetrack for marbles or larger balls
-Is he a Thomas fan? We have painted blank railway cars.
-origami, get real origami paper for the pretty patterns, the the simple ones are doable by three year olds. I have instructions from work if you want me to email them to you.
-bingo markers have already be mentioned but they are awesome for not only making round shapes (add eyes and a mouth and it is a person) but also you can drag them on the paper like giant markers.
-can he draw recognizable things? (Mine can't, so no shame if he just isn't ready) If so, have him draw things like people or pets and then cut them in half and play his own matching game (after he is done matching them a few times he can try the memory version where they are all face down and he turns them over two at a time)
-a bit of a stretch from art but my son loves to bake, he helps himself to all the ingredients and mixes cakes from scracth (okay, there wa the time he made a cake with a dozen eggs, but that was because a full carton is just too tempting). Kneading bread is another favourite activity. If you don't mind the sugar, (daddy coming home soon and you'll be going out?) decorating cupcakes with a bunch of squeezable icing tubes are also popular.
-magnets on the fridge? Again, you can buy ready-made or buy blank magnet sheets for him to decorate (el cheapo version is grabbing a bunch of freebie magnets from the chemist or dentist and gluing blank construction paper on top)
-fishing, draw/cut out fish from paper, attacha paperclip to each fishes mouth, make a rod out of a stick, string and a STRONG magnet and see if he can catch dinner.

carmina: playdates. oh yes! Before I hooked up with neighbourhod mums I was going nuts.
posted by saucysault at 8:43 PM on June 4, 2007 [4 favorites]

Forgive my spelling mistakes! Okay, time to step away from the computer and go to bed.
posted by saucysault at 8:46 PM on June 4, 2007

How about clothes that he can use to play dressup? Not directly arts and crafts, but can be fantastic for low parental involvement, depending on the kid.
posted by bilabial at 5:50 AM on June 5, 2007

At that age my girls were endlessly entertained by Crayola Color Wonder. They're a line of markers that can only write on color wonder paper. There are coloring books available, and books of just blank sheets of special paper. The kids really like the "magical" quality of things appearing. I can't tell you how many times the books/markers saved us from getting bored during long waits, airplane rides, etc.
posted by Flakypastry at 7:30 AM on June 5, 2007

Many great ideas -- thank you all. There are things I'd never considered doing, but are brilliant. I'm not marking any "best" because I love you all equally I'm hoping for more replies, more more more.
posted by The corpse in the library at 7:36 AM on June 5, 2007