Crayons? Painting?

OK. The preschool teacher in me is wanting to do some type of "activity" with the boys. I was wondering when you all introduced crayons and painting with your twins/children?

Granted-I know they are a bit young(13 months tomorrow), but I am getting a bit eager to do something with them other than tear my house apart! LOL!

I think I am off to Target today to look for chunky crayons and some finger paints. At least I will have it on hand. And maybe we will try to make Nonni and Grandpa a birthday gift this week(MIL turns 50 on Thur, my dad turns 60 on Sat)!

So-anyone? With success? Or was it basically tasting the rainbow of crayons? LOL!

 

We started with side walk chalk around 13-14 months. Then we moved onto crayons and stickers at around 15ish months. My girls LOVE art projects!!!

 

We started with crayons around 13 months but they didn't start to love it until about 14 or 15 months. Sidewalk chalk was a bigger hit, we started around 14 months and they loved it from the first minute.

We haven't tried finger paint yet because it would be too easy to lick off and eat. I have let them paint with pudding, though. That hasn't been much of a hit yet. Just an opportunity for them to get really messy and slide their hands around the high chair trays and squeal.

 

We did finger painting around that age.....I'm pretty sure I got the Crayola washable, non-toxic kind. And call me crazy, but I prefer markers to crayons. Can't bite off the ends & eat them and the Pipsqueaks kind washes off very easily.

 

We started with the crayons when they were around 16ish months, and they did fairly well with them. :good: Now painting I didn't pull out until they were 2+ :blush: I was scared of the mess they'd make but I must have hit a good age because they did great! They only tried once to taste it and that was at the beginning, they thought it was sauce. :lol:

Go for it and see what they do! Worst case, you pack up the stuff and pull it out on a later date. :good:

 

Thats interesting because the EI lady gave my girls some crayons and paper and they actually colored for a minute while I sat nervously in the corner waiting for them to eat the crayons and shred the paper!

 

I started crayons and paints around 17/18 months, but I'll bet I could have started way earlier. I wasn't ready for the eating/mess/etc. :blush:

 

we ate out at a restaurant last week where they gave the girls crayons. i was surprised that they actually colored! (tho they enjoyed doing it on the table more than the paper)

 

I let my girls finger paint for the first time at 10 months, and yes it was messy but they both had a great time and made me some beautiful masterpieces!! :lol: I am thinking about getting them some big crayons for a stocking stuffer for christmas and they will be 14 months old.

 

QUOTE(Kyrstyn @ Nov 17 2008, 07:39 PM) [snapback]1074595[/snapback]
I let my girls finger paint for the first time at 10 months, and yes it was messy but they both had a great time and made me some beautiful masterpieces!! :lol: I am thinking about getting them some big crayons for a stocking stuffer for christmas and they will be 14 months old.


Were you the one who had them fingerpaint a picture for Grandpa or someone's birthday? I think it was you...And if it was-I LOVED it! LOL!

On a side note...I was just checking out your blog...and how cool about "According to Jim!" What a great experience!

 

Thanks for this post. We have tried coloring a few times last month but DD wanted to eat the crayon. DS did great with some basic line coloring. My mom bought them giant books and crayons for Christmas so I can't wait. We may do some this week to see how much they "developed" in this department.

 

We tried crayons, sidewalk chalk, and fingerpainting at that age. I also introduced stickers about a month later. I bought them each a big thick piece of thick posterboard stuff and a book of BIG pictures for coloring on. I just taped the big pictures onto the board and let them scribble away with the crayons. This method helped to keep the coloring on the board and off the floor. When they would fill up one page I would just tape another on top of it. I hope I described that right.
I used the back of these boards for stickers and would just peel the sticker off and hand it to them and they would put it on the board. It was funny because Lily would pile all of her stickers in the same place on top of eachother.
Ditto with the boards and finger painting. We just did it outside and I gave them the same kind of big posterboard so they had a nice big pallet. It was easy in the summer because I would just hose them off. The non-toxic washable paints come off very easily.
I did find that they took most quickly to the sidewalk chalk and it took a little practice for them to enjoy the rest.

Have fun!!

 

It really depends on the child. Some kids really like to color and create with crayons at that age, but I'd say most don't like to do that until they are around 2. But go ahead and buy things like that and see what happens. If they don't use them now, they surely will later. One of the easiest things for kids that age to do is paint with water. Try that. Another thing you should start doing is reading simple stories to them, like Goodnight Moon. They won't have a terribly long attention span at first, but they will gradually enjoy it more and more.

 

ok, this has nothing to do with the topic, but to OP:
where your boys the Mario Bro for halloween?? Sooo cute!!