No Mess Baby Painting {Painting with Babies}

Hello April! It’s Mummy Loz here and what a massive month April has been! This month my baby turned 1! I can’t believe how quickly time goes. It feels like yesterday when we only just bought her home from the hospital.

As I was a little distracted, I have been utterly organised with my blog but here we go :)

Paint...ugh. Hahaha just joking. Children LOVE paint but I know for me the thought of cleaning up the mess just sends shivers down my spine! Mess, lots of mess! Even though I have worked in childcare for 9 years, paint still drives me mad sometimes! However, no one can deny the benefits of paint to children’s development. Exploring paint can not only support children’s imagination and creativity but it is also great for developing fine motor skills and sensory motor skills. Through painting activities children explore, use their senses of touch, but it also encourages them to be confident and independent learners as they are able to explore the paint on their own.

When Turtle has explored paint in the past she hasn’t overly enjoyed it. She will touch the paint a couple of times but then looked up with a unimpressed face. The cats or DVD player were much more interesting! So this month I wanted to approach it from another angle, I researched a little on P interest (if you haven’t entered the world of p interest I would recommend it for great children activity ideas) and found this painting activity using snap lock bags:

The activity

What you need:

·         Snap lock bags – I found the little bit more expensive ones hold a lot better.

·         Paper

·         Duct tape or masking tape

·         Scissors

·         Paint – I usually use home made paint as I’m always worried about Turtle consuming it, but I though because the paint would be concealed within the bag that non-toxic paint would be fine. There is however lots of cool paint recipes online, if you would like to make your own :)

Set up

It was so quick and easy to set up!

First, I cut the paper down to size, slid a piece of paper into each bag, squirted some paint into the bags, then sealed them up and stuck them to the high chair. It really only took a couple of minutes and it’s so simple. Not only that but it gave me time to do the dishes! Brilliant!

 

Result

To be honest, my child was not a fan! She was more interested in breaking loose and staring up at me unimpressed by the situation. Turtle is in the stage where she definitely isn’t a fan of being constricted.  She loves being active and exploring.  She did have a little play by poking and hitting it, but she was not as engaged as I would of liked - but hey, that’s ok it happens! Next time I think I might either attach some bags to the window, or perhaps on the kitchen floor so she can explore it in her own time, without being so constricted. Go with the flow I say :) There are always going to be things that children don’t like, but I’m sure there are so many more experiences to come :)

See you next month :) wonder what it will be? :)
This month we are giving away a Grimm's Wooden Heart Rattle. All you have to do is share how your baby plays with paint, for all the fine print click here.

If you liked this you may also like Paint Play with a 4 Month Old. Just click the picture to read all about it!

Please always supervise your infant/child at play.  Please stay within arms reach and never leave infants/children unattended.  You know you're infant/child best, use your own judgement-considering your infant/child's temperament, habits, behaviour and development before you play with a new play medium.

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