Painting With Kids

Miss C. and I love to finger paint; and on days when I'm having a hard time occupying her we always paint. Cordelia is one of those kids that if you don't give her good things to do she finds trouble to get into. Painting keeps her amused for close to an hour, and then we always have to finish up with a bath- which is another solid half an hour of entertainment. Finger painting is also a plain old great sensory play- she gets to experiment with the feeling of the paint and explore how the colors mix. Often we will bring in other objects- like pipe cleaners, pom poms, small plastic toys, and different brushes , for her to use and explore with. 

Mostly finger painting starts off looking like the above picture. We learned early on that being just in a diaper helps cut down on the mommy clean up required. Normally we put out paints in cupcake liners, or on little plastic plates. We also exclusively use Crayola washable, non toxic paint- because I like the texture and quality, and because Cordelia is pretty good at not eating the paint but you can never be too careful. It's my goal to never have to use the number on my green Mr. Yuck magnet.  

Then Miss. C will decided she needs more paint, and being a do-it-yourselfer she likes to get it herself (which is fine, I like independence, it's a good trait to have)

The cats like to keep an eye on us while we work. 

And in the end I always have to turn around to get more paper/ water/ more paint/ paper towles e.t.c and this is always what we end up with- a monkey on the table covered in paint.