Easy DIY Preschooler Christmas Gift

This is another amazing guest post from our friend Mel!

If you’re looking for an easy and inexpensive way to repurpose small toys, I have an awesome crafty Christmas gift idea for you.

I made my 3 year-old super intricate painted wood jigsaw puzzles for St. Nicholas Day, but I also made him some simple matching activities as an actual Christmas gift, so I wanted to share that idea as well.

My son is currently very into activities where you match a small toy to a picture of the toy or a silhouette of it.

There are a few of these style activities on the market,
but they’re honestly expensive for what they are.

The clothes matching one I was eyeing was something like $45, and that’s just not happening, so I set out to make my own.

In addition to being an easy and inexpensive gift, it’s also a great travel or restaurant activity, and it helps build several important skills.

How to Make This Easy DIY Preschooler Christmas Gift

Materials:

Small toys (I used doll clothes and accessories and some miniature toy gardening tools, but you could use other items as long as you can trace them and they are otherwise age-appropriate. It’s also best if they all have different shapes so they are easier to match.)

Pencil

Black acrylic paint

Paint brush

Foam board or craft wood sheets

Note: You could also use paper and a marker instead of paint and laminate it.

Steps:

1. Lay out the small toys on the foam board or wood.

2. Trace the toys with the pencil.

3. Set the toys aside and use the paint and paintbrush to fill in the pencil silhouette.

4. Once the paint is dry, your child can match up the toys to the silhouettes or images.

Benefits/Skills:

Develop fine motor skills by handling and manipulating small objects.

Work on visual scanning and visual discrimination to find objects.

Build vocabulary by discussing objects and learning new items.

Build engagement by using concrete 3D objects instead of just photos.

Develop critical thinking skills to figure out matches and choose between objects.

~Mel