Toddler Tuesday: Art Successes - Print Making and Finger Painting

I've come to realize that in many ways, Lucy is a prim and proper girl. I'm sure that, boy or girl, Dewey will come out a ball of non-stop energy who loves to get dirty and I'll be completely lost but for now, I'm enjoying my neat and tidy kid.

Her neatness is never more evident than when we do art projects. All those pictures I see on pinterest of kids covered in paint, smooshing and smearing and having a blast - not gonna happen.(I think that is why I liked the water beads so much, I finally got to see her really get her hands in something messy).

I had tried several paint/gooey art projects in the past and it normally ended up her watching me get messy as I tried to inspire her and show her the world was not going to end if her fingers got dirty. But we kept going, I just tried different approaches. The first real paint success we had was print making.

Since it was a messy project that she needed my constant help with and Craig wasn't around to document, I have no during picture. Just this really lame fuzzy before picture. I used paint, paper, bubble wrap and a few paint brushes. I used old stenciling paint because that is what I had but tempera paint would work just as well and be washable (if that is an issue with your kid).

She used the paint brushes to paint the bubble wrap then together we pressed the bubble wrap onto the paper. She liked it, she really liked it! We even did more than one piece of paper. This was back in January before she could name colors so I was able to strategically pick the colors that match our bathroom (nowadays she tells me exactly which colors she wants so that would not work). My favorite is framed and hanging there right now.

We then moved on to real painting. I bought a bunch of tempera paint from discount school supplies and one of us was so excited when they came. Knowing that Lucy is quite a fan of "blue" I showed it to her and asked if she wanted to paint. I wasn't sure how messy this would be so we did it outside with her stripped down to her undies. Turns out, that was completely unnecessary. Not so shockingly, she didn't spill a drop and asked me to wipe up her hands when anything got on them. But at least she was painting and having fun.

 

Then yesterday, I went for it: the real deal, that right of passage activity that every toddler has to partake in - finger painting. This was especially risky considering she had taken a 30 minute nap (as opposed to her normal 2-2.5 hr nap) and decided she was done. The whole thing could have been a tantrum filled disaster - but I was in a brave mood. To make it more enticing I did the homemade puffy paint version (equal parts white glue and shaving cream + a few drops tempera paint to color).

Craig has picked up a full art smock at his recent trip to Ikea so I put that on her and explained that it was okay to be messy since we had a smock to keep our clothes clean.

At first, she was skeptical but then she tried one finger, as long as I did each dip with her. A few minutes more and she took off. 

 The best part was that she narrated the entire time: "more pink, more pink, more yow (yellow), mix mix mix, more pink..."

She did momentarily get upset when her sleeve dipped onto the paper and got paint on it but I showed her how it wiped up and she was okay again. And I cleaned up the whole mess with a single paper towel. There are definitely some upsides to having an neat freak kiddo.