Painting with Toys

 

Cut sponges into pieces and allow kids to feel the different textures as well as what happens when they get to use different sides and textures to paint with. 

 

Try using scrubbing sponges as a paint brush. Kids will love seeing what happens to paint as it is dotted and smeared. 

 

We are using a small textured basketball to roll in paint and roll around the paper. It was great to talk about the bumps on the paper and then had fun washing the basketball off to use to slam dunk in our mini hoop. 

 

Try dipping cookie cutters in paint and making different sharps and stories. 

 

One of our favorite! Use a car or truck that you can run or race through paint and then "race" across the pages. Have fun with it!! 

Try This: 

Use animals to paint tracks across the page

Borrow some craft stamps and practice stamping

Cut an apple or potato in have and use as a homemade stamp

Painting Made Easy

 My son LOVES painting. One of the first ways we were successful painting independently with minimal mess (for paint) is to use bingo markers.

Hand held paint makes it really nice so that even daddy is willing to get messy and Grandma doesn't get covered in various colors.

Some of the best places to get bingo paint markers are craft stores like JoAnn Fabrics and Hobby Lobby. They can also be purchased at any Target, Walmart, etc.

Splash Zone

Our family dog, Zeus, loves the water and enjoys helping entertaining CP with some splashes. This trip to grandmother's house turned into a water park. CP couldn't get enough of people (and dogs) in and out of the $9 pool filled with cold hose water.

His favorite activity was having people throw balls to him seeing how big the splash was. He quickly threw them back out to see who would return them (aunt, uncle, grandma, or a dog)

"Entertaining the Baby"

This may be one of the professional photos we had taken with Jenni Kenney Photography but this happens frequently at our house. This is a great activity to help big brother understand gentle and slow. We spend time pushing and pulling our stuffed animal "friends"  and baby sister around.

Now, let me remind you that I am right beside him as we do this and am engaged in teaching the different parts of the wagon (wheels, gears, handle, etc) as well as opposites (fast, slow, gentle, rough, etc)

Little Tykes wagon (great for indoor spaces)Little Tykes Wagon (great for indoor use)