DIY Bug Craft for Toddlers

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No matter what time of year, I’m always on the hunt for activities to keep the boys engaged and entertained. In my recent search for fun ideas, I stumbled across a post by Ashley Brooke (if you don’t follow her then you should – she seems like the sweetest person)! She posted about painting rocks to look like “bugs” for her little boy to hunt after receiving a book from a friend!

Having two bug loving boys of my own, this idea felt like the perfect way to spend the afternoon! I made a few tweaks to make it work for both of our boys and we have been playing with our “bugs” for days. Seriously, they even went to church with us haha!

all items here

I try my best to pick activities that are both fun and educational for the boys. Most of our activities revolve around books since so many studies show the importance of books in childhood development. For this activity, I ordered this book for Gabe (3.5 years) and this book for Shep (15 months).

As a way to add even more educational opportunities, I had Gabe help me pour the paint into the tray to practice his fine motor skills and tell me the name of the colors as we were pouring them. We then proceeded to collect our rocks to be painted. This was an excellent time to practice counting to see how many rocks we had collected. Gabe learns best when he is on the move so incorporating these learning activities into our bug painting made it fun for him.

DIY Toddler Bug Craft

For this bug craft you will need:

Rocks – We found our own but if you wanted to have some on hand you could purchase this kit or this kit

Washable Paint & Brushes

Hot glue gun & glue

Googly eyes

Step One

Paint Rocks

I took a cardboard box that we had on hand and used it as our drop cloth. This allowed the boys to paint both on the rocks and the cardboard which they LOVED! Even I was surprised at how engaging this activity was for Shep. He worked so hard to paint his rocks just like his big brother.

Step Two

Add Eyes

We let our bugs dry while getting the boys bathed and ready for bed and I glued the eyes on while they were asleep. It was so magical seeing their little faces light up the next morning when they saw their bugs had eyes!

I will say, if you have little ones that haven’t fully mastered the art of being gentle, using super glue instead of hot glue might help keep the eyes in place a little longer.

Gabe gets excited when the eyes come off because he says that means its almost time to wash our bugs and paint them again!

Honestly, this has been the sweetest activity and we have taken our “bugs” everywhere in our bug catcher! If you are looking for a fun activity with your little ones this weekend, I highly recommend creating your own “bugs”!