Painting Leaves

Finger painting is a great sensory activity for kids. You can also use it as an opportunity to talk about colors too! Zel received some finger paints for his birthday a few weeks ago and we decided to use them with our Christmas Countdown project of painting leaves. Adding something new (like leaves) to an old activity (like painting) can really refresh your child's interest in it.

At first, Zel was hesitant to use the finger paints because normally our painting rule is "only paint on the paper." So he started off using a paint brush to paint on the leaves. He thought it was funny that the leaves would stick to the brush, so he experimented with that a little bit. After a few minutes of explaining that this was special paint that is okay to paint on your body, he started using the paint brush to paint on his fingers. It is "finger paint" after all! 

Then he got bold and started rubbing the paint all over his chest and belly. After he was covered he felt confident enough to stick his hand in the paint and use it to paint on the leaves and paper. Once he was finished, we went straight to the bathtub and Zel helped scrub off the paint. He played for so long that I had time to give myself a pedicure!

Whipped Topping Paint

We are getting ready for a cross country move in less than two weeks, so I've been trying to use up the various foods in our fridge, freezer, and pantry. I came across a container of Trader Joe's House Whip in the freezer and knew that Zel would love to play with it (and eat it, of course!). 

All I did was scoop out the whipped topping into a muffin tin and add food coloring. I let Zel use a silicone basting pastry brush as a paint brush. Instead of regular paper, we used freezer paper so that it wouldn't get mushy and would be easy to clean up. I laid a plastic mat on the ground, taped the freezer paper smooth side down and showed Zel that he could use the brush to paint on it. He liked pointing out the different colors and using the brush to mix the different colors together.

 After painting for a few minutes, he dipped his brush in and asked, "eat?" I gave him the OK and he proceeded to alternate between painting and eating the whipped topping. He thought it was really funny to stick his finger in the whipped topping and lick it off. At first he wanted me to lick the whipped topping off his finger. I showed him that he could use his fingers to paint too. While he was finger painting, I used the brush to write his name and make some shapes. He then took the brush and tried to paint on the shapes while saying the names of the shapes. 

 

 This was a fun, easy activity and a cool, tasty treat!

Fun with Rocks

Zel finds rocks to be very exciting, so any activity involving rocks is a hit with him. On a sunny day, I sent Zel out with his Daddy and a bucket to collect some rocks from around our apartment building (I stayed home so I could exercise without a toddler climbing on top of me). We put our bucket of rocks away for a rainy day, when we could use them to paint on. 

Kids love painting, but there is something about painting on items other than paper that makes it extra exciting. For Zel, it was a fun sensory experience too. If you do this activity indoors, I would suggest putting down some plastic or a blanket to cover the floor, especially if you have a toddler. Zel loves to throw rocks, so having the plastic saved the carpet. We used tempera paint and I gave him old applesauce cups to mix the paint in. We selected a few rocks and began painting.

Eventually, Zel began to explore methods of getting paint on the rocks other than using a paintbrush. First, he finger painted on the rocks. Then, he discovered that he could put the rocks into the paint cups to cover them with paint. This proved to be even more fun. He then began pouring the rocks back and forth between the various paint cups. This was the most fun yet.

I added a layer of glitter glue to one of the rocks and used a paint pen to write his name on it.