Your new toddler scribbles with intention and loves the surprise of what their marks create.
These creative activities develop voluntary mark-making, encourage exploration of art tools, and build the hand strength and control that support drawing development.
Your new toddler scribbles with intention, loves the surprise of what their marks create, and is developing preferences for certain materials and tools. They understand that their actions leave visible traces in the world β a powerful discovery.
Offer varied creative experiences: crayons on paper, finger paint, chalk on the sidewalk, a stick in the dirt. Each medium teaches something different about marks, materials, and self-expression. Your toddler's art is pure process, and that's exactly right.
Intentional creative expression at twelve months builds fine motor control, visual-motor integration, and the intrinsic motivation to create that supports artistic development.
Happy first birthday! Your baby is becoming a toddler. Expect big emotions alongside big milestonesβboth are signs of healthy growth.
Whether walking or cruising, keep offering safe spaces to practice mobility. Every fall and recovery builds balance and resilience.
Repetition is still the name of the game. The same book 50 times? That's exactly how one-year-olds master new concepts.
Functional play emerges nowβusing a cup to drink, a brush to comb hair. Provide real-world objects for your toddler to practice with.
Baby crumples colorful tissue paper and presses it onto a sticky surface to create a textured collage β a taste-safe creative activity that strengthens little hands.
Baby creates colorful stamp prints using soft sponges dipped in taste-safe paint β a simple first art activity that builds hand strength and visual exploration.
Baby drags colorful ribbons through taste-safe paint to create swooping trail art β a mess-friendly creative activity that encourages reaching and arm movement.
Seal blobs of colorful paint inside a ziplock bag and tape it to the tray β your baby can squish, push, and mix colors without touching the paint directly.
Give your baby a wide brush and a cup of water to paint on cardboard β they see the color change as water hits the surface, with zero mess and zero risk.
Give your toddler playdough and simple tools to squish, poke, and flatten β open-ended sculpting that builds hand strength and creativity.