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It's raining outside and your preschooler is bored. You don't want to just turn on the TV, but if you have to read about 'The Poky Little Puppy' one more time, you might just go insane. So, what can you do? You can make some easy crafts with your toddler instead. You and your child will both enjoy this special time together and you can both express your creativity. It's a great way for you to spend quality time with your child. Why not get started right away.

Sock Puppets For our first idea, we will turn a simple sock into a fun little puppet. It won't take you long to make this craft with your child and all you need are an old sock, and some basic crafting supplies. Making puppets is a great craft idea because you get to make a new toy with your child that she will treasure for a long time.

Puppets are also a great way for your preschooler to express her ideas and how she views the world around here. They are one of the best toys to spark your child's imagination, and of course it is very simple to make them. All you need is a sock, and various crafting supplies to turn it into a puppet. Glue or sew two buttons on as eyes, then leave it up to your child to decide what this puppet is going to be and how it should be decorated. The two of you can add some hair, glue in a red felt tongue and of course give it the appropriate accessories. A princess puppet would of course need a crown made out of aluminum foil or construction paper. Just use your imagination - and that of your toddler of course and you'll come up with all kinds of fun puppets.

Collage Craft Idea Most kids love to cut things out and use glue.Why not use this to keep your child busy making a collage. You don't need much for this activity, just some old magazines, a large piece of paper, and of course scissors and glue. Of course you could also add some crayons to the mix to let your child draw around the glued-on pictures.

Start by handing your child some magazine pages and then just let her cut out whatever she would like to include in the collage. Then it's time to glue the cut-outs on blank sheet of paper. The last step is to have her draw and write on the collage with the markers or crayons. Offer to write notes or headlines on the collage for your child. Of course this masterpiece should be up on the wall or fridge so everyone can admire what the two of you made.

Paper Plate Crafts We always have paper plates in the house and it is one of the first 'crafting' supplies I grab when I need to come up with an entertaining craft for the kids. Just add some markers, paint, construction paper or crayons and you are ready for a fun project.

One of our favorites is paper plate masks. Start by cutting two holes for the eyes, then let your child decorate the mask by drawing on it or gluing yarn as hair, or construction paper shapes as ears etc. They can be animals, favorite cartoon characters or any creature they can come up with.

Of course masks aren't the only thing you can make with a paper plate. How about turning it into a plate of pretend food?Use tan yarn as spaghetti that's then covered with a piece of red construction paper (the sauce). Glue the spaghetti and sauce on the plate, then draw some 'cheese' on with a yellow crayon. Or hand your child a little bit of alphabet cereal and ask them to make a bowl (or better plate) of alphabet soup. Encourage older kids to spell their name or even small sentences.