Painting with Toddlers

At the beginning of the summer I stocked up on art supplies and simple things to keep us busy.  I bought a set of Crayola paints (washable, of course) and the girls mostly demolished that today.  So, how do you paint with two year old twins?  This is what we did and what I would do differently next time.

First, think mess.  Two year olds are all about exploring everything: color, texture, taste, etc....  I covered the table with a piece of cheap plastic drop cloth.  My mom had a vinyl table cloth that worked great.  A friend of ours went to the fabric store and bought some clear vinyl to cover her pretty table cloths.  I thought that was a great idea.

Table covered, check!  One color paint pot open, check!  Paint brushes, check!  Bed-headed toddlers, check!

This is how we started out.  One color.  Nice.  Neat-ish.

This is where we ended up.  Not too bad, but there are two t-shirts soaking in dishwater.  Dishwater is a miracle cleaner.  I learned that from some awesome parent friends.

Now, what I plan to do next time:

• Save the empty paint pots
• Refill empty paints with homemade cheap paint (water, corn starch, food coloring, and liquid soap)
• Could put paper inside a cookie tray to contain the mess (don't remember where I read this, but I've read it on a few mommy blogs)
• Buy some t-shirts at thrift shop for artsy activities
• Set them up at the table and let them go! I could have gotten some work done nearby because they were so into the painting.
• Thought about a paper plate "palette" instead so that I don't have to open/close colors for the girls.  Read several places that you can recycle bottle caps into a palette by gluing them onto a paper plate or cheap plastic plate.  I think I'll just put some blobs of paint onto a paper plate and let them go.
• Sponge-painting!  Probably way easier for them to manipulate than the paint brushes. 

Overall, it was a good way to kill an hour and the girls had lots of fun talking about colors.  They were very impressed with the water changing colors.   It's now 9:20 and we have a long way to go until naptime.  Next up:  bike ride around town, park and playground, haircuts?, lunch!  Then it's sweet, sweet naptime. 

Summer 2011

I am determined that this summer will rock.  The other day I brainstormed things I could do with the girls when they got bored with playing with toys.  If I don't watch them, the war of the wonder twins breaks out.  It's usually caused by boredom, frustration, need for a nap, or hunger.  I wrote lots of little activities on slips of paper and tucked them into a tin (leftover from candy somebody gave me once...there was no more candy and I was a bit sad).  Some of the things in the tin:

• balloons - I used to play for a long time with a plain balloon.  Good for a rainy day.
• paper plate maracas - Coloring and music!  
• paper plate masks - No need for tons of supplies for these.  
• finger painting - Read a suggestion that you put a bit of paint on a paper plate to keep things tidier.
• shape walk - The girls know their shapes and we can look for things in those shapes.  
• cloud watching
• tp tube kazoos
• table fort
• peanut butter play dough
• play with bread dough and bake it
• stamps on paper
• potato stamps
• bucket with soapy water - they're two, anything is fun!
• obstacle course with household objects
• baby doll bathtime outside
• face painting - fun to do and fun to wash off
• visit nursing home down the street - pass out flowers or stickers to residents
• make a book
• make hand prints on cardstock - which I can turn into thank you notes later.  Must remember to give each child a different color or write names and ages on the page.
• make ice cream in coffee cans or zipper bags
• go for a walk in the rain

Today I started out by making the finger paint.  The girls are with their Nana and my gardening projects were not going super.  I used this recipe:  Bath Tub Soap

Upon many reviews of other recipes, I used tear free baby soap.  I screwed up and added water to the corn starch/soap mixture when it looked too thick.  I have a recycled pickle jar half full of this mixture in the fridge.  So, oops, but score!  If the kids like it, there's extra left.  I am hoping that it would make a neat gift.  I just want to make sure that it comes clean before I give it away.

Mine came out a bit lumpy, but the two year olds shouldn't mind.  Life is about messes and textures for them right now.  Here's a pic of the containers I have:

I can't wait to get the kids all grubby so that they can play with this in the tub.  It should be a good bath tub and finger paint base.  I read a suggestion that you let the kids paint on an old sheet hung up outside.  I might try that to see if the colors wash out.  I will post more as we try the different activities throughout the summer.