If you have snow around you then no doubt it's cold, but on the plus side, the children are probably loving it!  Wrap the children up in coats, hats, scarves and gloves, put on some cosy boots, and they can go out and play while the snow lasts.  Here are some game ideas to play outside in the snow:-

1. Snow Sculpture: Traditionally we build snowmen, but why not build snow animals and other sculptures like snow-castles or a boat?  Help your children to scoop up mounds of snow and sculpt it into a variety of shapes!
2. Animal Tracking: Look out for the footprints of different animals in the snow; birds, cats, dogs, foxes, squirrels, rabbits, deer...even if you live in an urban area you'll be surprised at how many animals wander in the wild!  Look for animal tracks and tell your toddlers all about the creatures that make them.
3. Footprint Art: There's nothing more inviting than pristine snow!  Have your children create a track of snow pictures by trampling through a pristine blanket of snow.
4. Obstacle Course: Build an obstacle course in the snow - draw a line that your toddler must walk 'tightrope' style, draw boxes that they must jump between and build hurdles that they must jump over.
5. Target Practice: Build a snowman then have your toddler pelt him (or is it a her?!) with snowballs.  Get a hat and have your children throw a hat onto its head!

You may be tired of the snow, but there are still plenty of games the children can have fun with outdoors!

Here at ToucanLearn we offer a lot of art and craft based activities, besides keeping children occupied, there are very practical reasons why art and craft is important to learning children.

Before they can talk, art offers young children a way to express themselves and communicate ideas.  Just as their sounds may not make much sense, so their splodges and scribbles may not mean an awful lot to you, but they are communicating ideas and this gives children a sense of freedom that develops further with language.  They are also using their imagination and expressing what they see and experience in an abstract form.

Craft offers a way to explore the physical world.  Art is tactile, you are experiencing different materials and textures, and interacting with objects to understand how they 'work'.  There are malleable materials such as plasticine, sticky tack and dough; there are items that bend into shape and stay that way such as pipe cleaners, wire, even paper when folded and tucked into shapes.  There are runny substances like paints and glue, they can be poured and spread.  The variety of craft materials that a toddler experiences helps them explore the physical world and teaches the how different materials act.

Craft is about making decisions, not important ones, but decisions all the same.  The thought processes that go on whilst your little ones are being creative inform their approach to problem solving.  What are the options to make a googly eye stick to a piece of paper?  Which one is best in this situation?  How do I apply glue to the back of a small googly eye?  As adults these 'problems' are second nature, but to a young child, these have to be learned and the lessons learned at this stage of their lives will inform all sorts of practical needs throughout the rest of their lives.

Of course, craft is also about developing fine motor skills, the ability to colour in within the lines; to stick glitter to parts of the page; to roll a piece of card into a tube and stick it into place.  All of these and so much more rely on the ability to control hands and fingers in ways that are easy for adults but for children form an important part of learning.  How can they learn to write when they get to school if they still haven't mastered fine control of their hands?

In addition to being graded according to the Early Years Foundation Stage areas of learning and development, all the activities we offer at ToucanLearn are classified by one of four overriding key development areas: making, moving, learning and speaking (relating to communication more generally).  Most craft activities are classified as 'Making' activities with the focus on development of fine motor skills, but as you can see, art and craft activities help to promote development in all four of these key development areas!

From their earliest days, babies and toddlers are creating art in their different settings, at home, at playgroup, nursery and school - the progression of their artwork tells a wonderful story of their development.  From early splodges and hand and footprints, through to detailed pictures of the family, their house and other scenes that they have witnessed.  Every parent is proud of their little one's achievement, and it's lovely to have see their artwork on display in your home.

Here are some ideas on how to display their artwork so that you can be proud of what they make, and they can feel special too:-

• Create a dedicated 'gallery' space for their art; it could be on the refridgerator, a wall in the kitchen, in the hallway or even in the bathroom!
• Look for some cheap frames that you can use in special places, such as the living room or bedroom.  You can shop around for cheap clipframes or frames that come complete with prints - just make sure that you can unclip the back and change the artwork for your own
• Change the artwork regularly so that there's always room for newer art
• Keep a large scrapbook and stick in pictures that you have talken down
• Record the date on the back of artwork and write it in the scrapbook too so that you can look back through your child's artistic development
• Turn your toddler's artwork into Christmas Cards or other custon items, see our post on creating personalised Christmas Cards
• Have your child's best masterpieces scanned and printed onto canvas - this turns art into a talking point!

Chalks are inexpensive, safe for toddlers to handle and can be used for a variety of toddler craft ideas.  Chalks come in a variety of vibrant colours and the fact that it is composed from solid particles makes it one of the few writing materials that works really well on black paper.  You can create night pictures, stunning firework scenes and many other patterns and pictures on black and other dark coloured papers.

Chalk can be used to make rubbings, just like wax crayons.  Find a textured surface, inside or out, such as a textured lino floor, a piece of wood, tree bark or patio stones.  Lay a sheet of paper over your surface and rub across the texture.  You will create an image of the texture on the paper.  That in itself is fun, but you can go further and have your little ones use that as a background to draw another picture on top.

Chalks can be used safely outdoors to draw on patios or pavements.  Make road layouts, games, obstacle tracks, mazes or other large scale pictures for your little ones to play with.  It might look messy for a few days after, but the pictures will quickly disappear with a bit of rain.