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Halloween 2014 : Baby friendly Halloween crafts

Halloween 2014 : Baby friendly Halloween crafts
On a rare recent occasion when both Hubby and I were with the little man we decided to attempt a craft morning. Not surprisingly, you’re pretty restricted with the standard of ‘arts and crafts’ you can create with an almost 9 month old. Regardless though, he loves getting messy, throwing things around and generally causing a mini whirlwind in my living room. 
From quite a young age, I’ve taken the little man to both messy and sensory play at our local Children’s Centre. He absolutely loves it. He loves being in the thick of the mess and muddle and I feel he really benefits from it . He’s learnt to interact with other children and is keen to get involved and explore his surroundings. I think it’s helped his independence – he doesn’t want to be hanging round Mammy, he wants to hang out with his pals and scurries off to play as soon as we arrive whilst I’m abandoned in the corner trying to pretend I’m a cool parent!
I think it’s important to help his senses develop as early as possible and encourage both learning and play as part of our daily routine. 
For our most recent crafty session we brought in some leaves from outdoors (it’s much snugglier playing with leaves in the cosy house than our blustery garden!) and got out the paper and paints and let the little man go mad!
He now picks up things really well, once his Daddy had shown him there was paint in the dish there was no stopping him – hand, feet and paint everywhere!
He enjoyed dipping the leaves into the paint and smearing it on the paper, himself and his Dad. His dexterity and grip is great now. He can get things where he wants them in an instant, I’m looking forward to future collages and ‘creating’. The little mans Daddy and I both think we have some kind of Kirsty Allsop streak, we enjoy creating and making, it doesn’t very often go to plan, but it’s lots of fun trying!

So what masterpieces did we end up with?

Well, I’m not sure I have a child genius on my hand or that he’s going to make millions selling his art work, but, he thoroughly enjoyed himself and we ended up some rather cute pictures to keep in his memory box. 

Creative play doesn’t have to cost the earth, it’s can be a cheap and effective way of helping your child learn to explore their own imagination. It encourages wonderful ideas and games and most importantly, it creates beautiful smiles. 
In years to come I’m hoping encouraging creative play will have helped with the little mans development in some shape or form. There are many studies and documents which suggest it helps with the problem solving part of the brain and helps children to use their creative flare to express their feelings and emotions. Whether or not that’s true and whether he ends up an artist, a musician or a bin man, I’ll still remember the fun and messy times we’ve had as he grows up. 
Oh, and in case you’re wondering – the paint did come out of his clothes!

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