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Magic pictures
What you'll need: Masking tape, paper, markers or crayons
Best for: 18 months and up
- Make a house or letter of the alphabet by putting strips of tape on a piece of paper. Have your child color the entire page.
- Once she's colored the whole page, carefully remove the tape to show her the picture beneath.
Mythical creatures
What you'll need: Kid-safe scissors, catalogs, glue stick, paper, crayons
Best for: 2 and up
- Have your child cut out pictures of people and animals. (You'll probably do the cutting for a toddler.) Cut heads off bodies.
- Your child can mix and match heads and bodies and glue them to the paper, or draw his own bodies after gluing the heads.
Little weavers
What you'll need: Six rubber bands, sturdy cardboard or notebook, pencils, kid-safe scissors, paper
Best for: 2 and up
- Place the rubber bands around a piece of cardboard. Toddlers can "weave" pencils over and under the rubber bands.
- Preschoolers can cut strips of paper and weave these into the bands.
Polka-dot masterpiece
What you'll need: Paper punch, paper, envelope, glue stick
Best for: 3 and up
- Punch out a few dozen holes and put them in an envelope for your preschooler. She can glue the circles onto another piece of paper.
- When she's done, tape the paper with the punched-out holes onto another piece of paper; let her use it as a stencil by coloring in all the holes.
Barbara Rowley is a contributing editor to Parenting.