Thursday, May 27, 2010

Paint with Water

When my daughter was fifteen months, I accidently discovered a great art activity. I had put her in her highchair to color with some crayons. When I went to tape down the construction paper, her high chair tray was still a bit wet and the paper changed colors where the water touched the paper. She was fascinated by this and kept yelling “That, That” (her all purpose word). I then dried off the table and taped down a fresh piece of construction paper. I then got her a paint brush and put some water in a no spill container. Note: These are must have for any painting project with kids and I highly recommend them. I then showed her how to tip the paint brush into the water and paint on the construction paper with the water. She was fascinated by this and we spent hours over the next few weeks painting with water.

Once she got the hang of it, we graduated to water colors. I would put water in all of the colors of paint for her before we got started to make it easier. To keep the mess to a minimum I would tape down the paper and we would always do this project in the high chair. I was surprised how she was able to paint with water colors at such a young age and how relatively mess free it was. She was much more engrossed in this than finger painting, which seemed to take an hour of clean up for 5 minutes of art.

2 comments:

  1. As a mother who stayed home and had a preschool in my home to make extra money, your article on construction paper painting reminded me of some fun things I used to do with your children of 2-5 years. Using a basting brush and a cup of water on concrete walkways or walls makes great painting fun with no mess! I later used large boxes tipped upside down and bought inexpensive poster paint watered down in a cup with a short brush out on the grass. All the kids had their own boxes and colors. We had a wading pool nearby to jump in when they finished painting. Lots of fun and it dried in the sun...later we used washable markers to make happy faces or any designs on their box! Gail from Ponce Inlet, FL

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  2. Thanks so much for this great idea! I'm going to write a post to share the painting the box idea.

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