Art you can do with 18+ month olds

I am constantly looking for an "art" type thing to do with my 19 month olds while older ds is coloring, writing, painting etc. It has been difficult though, because paint is MESSY, they still eat crayons and play-do etc. But I found something today that worked and wanted to pass it along. Our "Dollar General" store had paint with water books yesterday for $1.50. I bought them and tried them out today and they worked GREAT!!! I remember them as a kid, but haven't seen them lately. You tear out a page with a picture on it, dip a paint brush in water and hand it to them. Works beautifully, not very messy and very low maintenance. All I had to do was hold the water cup down (or it was going flying). They learned how to dip the brush in and then paint.

Anyone else have success stories to pass along?

 

I am constantly looking for an "art" type thing to do with my 19 month olds while older ds is coloring, writing, painting etc. It has been difficult though, because paint is MESSY, they still eat crayons and play-do etc. But I found something today that worked and wanted to pass it along. Our "Dollar General" store had paint with water books yesterday for $1.50. I bought them and tried them out today and they worked GREAT!!! I remember them as a kid, but haven't seen them lately. You tear out a page with a picture on it, dip a paint brush in water and hand it to them. Works beautifully, not very messy and very low maintenance. All I had to do was hold the water cup down (or it was going flying). They learned how to dip the brush in and then paint.

Anyone else have success stories to pass along?

 

My girls love these, too! I take them places to keep them quiet for a few minutes. YOu can also give your kids just plain water and a piece od colored constructionm paper for painiting- mess free!

Some other ideas that aren't so messy- washable markers, pens or colored pencils, aquadoodle, magna doodles. Have you tried the paint brushed that have the paint in the handles? These are great! I only give them one at a time and supervise closely.

My girls are older now, so I'll have to think of some ideas from when they were younger.

 

I'll have to try the water-painting thing! We've been stuck in the house so much, we need some new activities.

I'll pass on a suggestion I got from a friend (though I haven't tried it yet) -- it does require some advance planning.

Get a piece of transparent contact paper and tape it to a flat surface, sticky side up. Then give them an assortment of things like feathers, buttons, leaves, etc. (I guess you have to watch closely that they don't eat them.) Have them scatter these things around on the paper and explore the textures -- then when they are done scattering, put another piece of contact paper on top, sticky side down. It makes kind of a 3D picture, plus there is nothing really messy to clean up.

 

Mine like the foam shapes/cutouts, stickers, etc. that they can stick on paper. We have even tried pasting too (using my old scrapbooking cutout shapes).

Recently I just gave them some colored construction paper and a q-tip with a tiny cup of water. They dipped the q-tip in the water and "painted" their paper. That lasted quite awhile surprisingly. When it warms up I want to try painting with big paintbrushes on the cement, using water.

 

quote:
Originally posted by Minette:

Get a piece of transparent contact paper and tape it to a flat surface, sticky side up. Then give them an assortment of things like feathers, buttons, leaves, etc. (I guess you have to watch closely that they don't eat them.) Have them scatter these things around on the paper and explore the textures -- then when they are done scattering, put another piece of contact paper on top, sticky side down. It makes kind of a 3D picture, plus there is nothing really messy to clean up.



I read this on TS a few months ago and tried it with my kiddos and they loved it!! For the holidays, I cut up colored paper and had them make collages for the grandparents. After they finished their collages, I mounted a picture of each child with their grandparents in the center of the collage and framed it. They were great gifts!!

 

quote:
I'll have to try the water-painting thing!


Me too!

What about edible art?