What this activity is great for
- It provides a fantastic opportunity for your little one to work on their hand-eye co-ordination and understanding of cause and effect. I can imagine their thought process going a little something like this "Hmm Mummy, I need to put my hand in that colourful gooey mess. Ooo, what does it do? If I move my hand onto this clean piece of paper I wonder what will happen? How about if I rub instead of pat?" In fact I imagine the thought process behind most of Baby F's movements are "how can I make this clean thing dirty?".
- Paint is such a fun texture. It's thicker than yoghurt, thinner than puree and smoother than mashed banana so, it's likely to be a completely new feeling experience for your little one. Imagine feeling it for the first time again, especially imagine the squelchy, slippy nature of it running between your fingers. Euwww!
- It's also a fabulous learning opportunity. What a great way to learn about the vibrant colours. If you're little one is a little older than mine then they'll enjoy creating new shapes, patterns or maybe even pictures of the non-modern variety. Monet, eat your heart out!
- a big splash mat
- a paint pallet of some sort, I used a plastic plate
- some washable children's paints
- some paper
- a bowl of water
- little fingers (and big ones too)
- in my case a frame to put the finished masterpiece in
- lots of creativity.
How it worked out for us
It happened quite randomly. Baby F is only 9.5 months old so, I didn't plan on introducing her to paints for a while yet, especially as she's teething and her fingers are constantly in her mouth. However, it was a rainy day and I figured, screw being clean and tidy. I'm so glad I did because she enjoyed it so much and even managed to keep the paint away from her mouth. I started off trying to put her pudgy little paws onto the plate of paint and then imprinting it onto the paper. She wasn't really interested in me moving her hands for her and didn't understand why I desperately wanted her to pat everything. All she wanted to do was rub and pat the plate of paint. So, I left her to play her paint drum for a while, until the paint had transferred completely from the plate to the entirety of her sleep suit, hair and face. I was desperate for a picture of some sort to show Daddy so I then popped some little dabs of paint directly onto the paper and she quickly moved onto rubbing the paint on the paper, watching what happened and then doing it again and again. It was then I noticed that she noticed that she was creating the patterns on the paper, which was quite exciting to discover together.
This activity did require quite a bit of patience with the mess, although we did manage to keep it all contained on the splash mat and her washable body. Also, I had to realise that although I wanted her to understand the activity straight away she wanted to be given the opportunity to fully explore these new surroundings before moving onto the actual 'painting'. As soon as I started to follow her cues she started to follow mine.
Enjoy painting and let me know how it worked out for you.
