Nail And String Art Heart Activity

Children love to crash and bash and letting them get hands-on with basic tools is fab for an array of things. It helps build confidence and fine motor skills and can be brilliant for concentration. It’s also wonderful for encouraging creative flair. And letting children have free range with close adult supervision can set them up for a healthy interest in working with their hands as they grow older.

Introducing little ones to tools can be easy. You can start off by using play hammers and golf teas bashed into half a watermelon. Then once they have got to grips with that you can step up a notch and get out a real hammer and nails.

We’ve previously had fun with a hammer and nails so the children are very familiar with this kind of activity.

So I decided I wanted to do a more structured activity with a foreseeable result.

With this in mind, we decided to make a piece of wall art.

What you will need:

A block of wood (we used an offcut of decking)
Some small nails
String or wool
Safety goggles

I started by marking out the outline of a heart on the wood. I used a permanent marker pen to put a dot where each nail would need to go.

I then let Boo, age 3, bash in the nails. If your child finds this hard then you could use a nail to gently tap into the wood to mark where the nails will go. This will make it easier for them to stand the nail up without it slipping away.