Today’s post is something I did with my son when he was a baby, but haven’t done with my daughter, yet. My friend Erinn reminded me of this fun activity and even supplied me the pictures of her darling son trying it out for the first time. Thanks for sharing Erinn!
I think most of us are familiar with this one, but we all need a little reminding sometimes. A fun activity to do with ANY age child is edible fingerpainting. The obvious benefits for the little ones are the fact that when tempted to put it in their mouth, it’s okay. Preschoolers love to finger paint so anything like this is fun for them. Older kids do get the shaft sometimes. They often get targeted as too old to finger paint. You are never too old to finger paint! It is too much fun to be just for little ones. The older kids can get extra creative, you’d be surprised. This is also a great thing to do if you have a child that needs extra sensory stimulation related to autism, ADHD, Down’s Syndrome, or other disability.
There are many ways to make the fingerpaint. You can use plain yogurt and food coloring. You can use vanilla pudding and food coloring. An easy prep time version is just to use the squeeze tubes of yogurt (like GoGurt or store brand version). They come in great colors like purple, blue, pink, yellow, etc. You just tear them open and squeeze out. No dishes to dirty up. Now that is my kind of prep work!
You can put down wax paper, parchment paper, Saran Wrap on a table to protect it and make a canvas. You can also use a white cutting board or plate. If the child is small enough, just use the tray of the high chair. Make the different colors and let them have at it! It is so much fun to watch them experiment and create!
Like I said above, this is nothing new to most of you. If you are anything like me, though, you get stuck in a rut of doing the same things. Throw this into your repertoire of activities. Shake it up a bit! Have fun! Try it.
What activity did you do with your first child, but haven’t done with the others yet?
5 comments: