Make-It Monday: Painting

Here are some of our favorite activities using paint:

(there are no pictures, sorry, remember our camera in Mexico?)

• Car Painting: place a few blobs of paint on a sheet of paper and allow your kids to drive cars through the paint. This makes a fun design especially if you use cars with different wheels. If you use cardstock, this also makes a great card for grandma! When they're finished painting, my kids love filling the sink or water table and creating a car wash. I give them sponges, toothbrushes, rags, etc.--this is a nice activity that keeps them busy for a while! More detailed instructions can be found here.
• Crayon Resist Painting: we haven't done much of this, but what we've done, my kids have been fascinated with. Check here for some ideas.
• Painter's Tape: we use the blue tape meant for taping baseboards and ceilings before painting a room to make different pictures. I will say this works best when using cardboard to paint on instead of paper. I've made the kid's initials and let them paint around them, carefully removed the tape to reveal the first letter of their name still in white. We used painter's tape for the Fourth to make American flags--they turned out great! You can also practice shapes with small children or let older children make simple outlines like a house!
• Rolling Pin Painting: we use old cereal boxes most often to paint on. A few weeks ago, when we'd reached the point of growing bored with "just painting," I got a few sheets of paper and the kids put it right on top of the pictures they'd been working on. They then passed my rolling pin around taking turns rolling the print from their painting onto the white paper. They LOVED this activity!
• Outside Painting: the dollar store usually sells packs of regular size paintbrushes (like the kind you'd paint a wall with). These are great with a bucket of water. My kids love painting the driveway and are fascinated with watching their painting disappear.

There are so many other ideas out there that we haven't yet tried. These we've all tried with relative success...hope there's some success for you and your little Picasso too!