Painting with the Kiddos

I love painting with my kids. But sometimes they get tired of the same ole painting. So here are some great ideas I found online.

Pic from The Activity Mom blogspot

The Activity Mom has GREAT ideas for activities with kids. I found this on her site and thought it was so much fun! She describes it as Crayon Resist Painting.... I prefer to call it Secret Message Painting. Here's what you do: take a white crayon and write a message or draw some pictures on some white paper. To see the message or drawing your child has to paint over it. The paint will "resist" the crayon and voila! Your message is shown.

In my son's 1st grade art class they did crayon painting except they drew monsters. They did big outlines of monsters using BLACK crayon. They did not color in the outline with crayon, but painted it instead using watercolors. It was a HUGE hit with the kids. His art teacher is amazing. They first talked about what you can find on a monster -- claws, horns, feathers, big googly eyes, etc etc. Then everyone got to draw their own version of a monster. Afterward they painted their monsters using all sorts of colors. The creativity was AMAZING. I came home after volunteering and we did our own that same night. My kiddos loved it!

I also read a post awhile back on Quirky Mom regarding Shaving Cream Painting. This sounds like fun and EASY to do and clean up. LOVE IT.

pic from Quirky Mom blog

Basically, shaving cream paint is shaving cream mixed with tempura paints. A few great things about painting with wee ones this way:
1. It DOES NOT spill easily. You can take your cup of paint and turn it upside down and it does not spill out! (hurrah hurrah!)
2. It helps your paints go further and last longer (yeah for saving $$$)
3. It's easy to clean up and makes your child and their artwork smell lovely.
I love this and can't wait to do this with C on Friday. woo hoo!


Crayola's website came up with dipping your crayons in paint. I'm not sure how this would work w/o ruining your crayons, but hey - thought it was interesting way to teach Pointillism to your child! I think I might try Q-tips instead of crayons and see if that works just as well.

pic from Crayola website

1. Cover your table with newspaper. Draw a very light sketch of your subject on the paper with a Crayola® Erasable Colored Pencil.
2. Pour a small amount of Crayola Washable Kid's Paint onto each produce tray. You can mix colors on these trays to get a nice variety of colors, too.
3. Use the flat, circular end of a Crayola Crayon as your painting tool. Dip your crayon into paint, then firmly press the wet bottom on paper. The crayon will leave a round dot of paint. Use a different crayon bottom for each color you use so your colors will stay fresh and bright.
4. When finished, stand back, and you'll see that all of the dots blend together to make solid areas of color. No lines are needed because the dots give the impression of the picture. Hang up your work, and have a show for your friends and family!

So if you needed some ideas to get you painting -- here you go!
Enjoy!