Bellow you will find some easy painting activities to try with your toddler! Painting is a good way to explore creativity, colors, and it’s a great sensory experience! For all of these activities I used the taste safe paint recipe I posted last week. You can find the link bellow. One batch of paint was enough for ALL of these activities. I tried storing the paint in the refrigerator to see if it would last longer, which it did! But it did thicken it A LOT, and made it a bit chunky. I knew we were not going to be making projects to be treasured forever so this wasn’t a big deal to me. The taste safe paint also has a high water content, so it may cause your paper to get easily waterlogged. A canvas or maybe watercolor paper would hold up better. All that being said, the paint is great because I don’t worry about Asher eating it, and he loves to help pick and mix up the colors for each activity. https://turtlelion.com/2021/07/23/homemade-taste-safe-paint/
Finger Painting Tree
The idea for this activity is to trace your hand which acts as your tree trunk. I did mine because getting Asher to let me trace his hand sounded hard. Then you let your child fill in the “leaves” with their finger prints. This was a great example of expectations vs reality. Asher is just barely 2 so his focus level is still pretty low. He loved finger painting though! So regardless of the expectations of the finished project, he really enjoyed it. I’ve linked to the inspiration bellow if you’d like to see what it is supposed to look like. https://www.artycraftykids.com/art/autumn-handprint-tree/
Blow Painting
Asher LOVED doing this activity! For this one using a taste safe paint is important just incase they inhale the paint up the straw. I watered down the paint a little bit and then put little dabs onto the paper. I showed him how to blow through the straw and he was off!
Painting with Unconventional Objects
This one is pretty self explanatory, go around the house and pick out some things to try painting with. We tried a pom-pom, feather, big lego, some q-tips tied together, a pipe cleaner, and some shapes. He especially liked the feather and the shapes.
Painting on Tinfoil
For this I just taped down a piece of tinfoil, but you could also wrap a baking dish or something else. I crinkled it up a little bit before taping it down. The paint behaves a little differently on the tinfoil so it is a fun new medium to explore. Also I have his paint in a little silicone ice cube mold. These are great because they don’t slide around easily.
Slide Painting
This one was also super fun! Tape down a large piece of paper to the slide. I used one of those rolls that goes onto an art easel, but butcher paper or even wrapping paper would work. I put down some plates with paint, rolled the cars in it and let them go! This could also be done with balls or anything that can roll down the slide. We did this out in the driveway where I didn’t care about the mess. The paint I made will eventually wash away. You could put a container at the bottom to catch things if you are worried about the mess.
Box Painting
This last one I didn’t manage to get a picture of. Basically you tape down a piece of paper in the bottom of a box, and put dabs of paint around the edges. Put a ball into the box and either, gently roll it around, or close up the box and shake it around. It will result in a really fun abstract style painting.
I hope you enjoy these activities! I’d love to hear from you if you try them out. Please like, share, and enjoy!
Turtlelion 