As a Mum of three, I can vouch for the fact that all three of my children are very different when it comes to art. They each enjoy expressing themselves through art but via different media. My son, for example, loves to build things. He likes to take a cardboard box and transform it into a spaceship, a car or whatever else his imagination can think of. As they have grown older we have created different ways to enjoy art, each adapted for the individual child. One of the things they all love to do however is paint. Painting seems to be their preferred art form and so over the years, we have come up with many different ways to enjoy painting.
Mess-Free Painting
Art doesn’t need to be messy either. When the children were toddlers we would love to play with mess-free paint. It is really simple to do and would keep the children busy for some time. The set up is key. First, put some poster paint into a zip lock bag. You want to fill about a quarter of the bag with paint. After sealing with the zip lock, I would seal again with tape to ensure a double lock. The bag can either be placed onto a highchair or table to allow your little one to paint with their fingers, by making patterns on the bag, or I would tape the bag to the patio door. As my children would move the paint around inside the bag the light from outside would shine through it creating additional patterns and colours. If you want to be extra safe you can always place inside two bags and double tape as well.
Messy Painting
If your child loves to get messy, as mine did, messy painting is a lot of fun. We used to save this until the summer or the hot weather as it is best done outdoors. During the year I would save up cardboard boxes, the bigger the cardboard box the better. Once ready for the activity open out the boxes into the garden to create a large cardboard canvas. My children would change into swimming clothes, and then use their entire bodies to paint the boxes. Feet would run through paint and create footprints, they would slide over them and run their hands through the paint. Messy painting creates lots of laughs and giggles and is great for babies too, provided the paint is safe for them. The mess stays outdoors and once they are finished my children would jump in the paddling pool to clean up.
Alternative painting
It is possible to paint without paint too. When my children were babies I would make edible paint. This is done by mixing cornflour, water and food colouring together. The colourful paste is perfect for babies to start exploring art and creativity. The ingredients are also safe to eat so there is no worrying about a baby putting the paintbrush into their mouths, which they all do. Other food ingredients can be tried too, ice painting was another particular favourite of my children.
The best thing about art, however, is watching a child express themselves. Regardless of if they like messy painting, or perhaps they prefer to keep themselves mess-free, whatever it is there is a way for a child to enjoy themselves with art and let their imagination run free.
