This is a quick and practical post about a fun activity we enjoyed recently on our trip to the USA (we live full-time in Guatemala). Hope you get some artsy inspiration!
In rummaging through things I still have at my parent’s house, I came across a large canvas. Years ago I had good intentions of painting it. But, with two little ones, I haven’t had time to dedicate to painting. So, I thought, “let’s paint together!”
Here’s how you can easily and successfully paint a canvas, even with young kids!
Paint + homemade paintbrushes + stencils + 2 kids = FUN! and some lovely Thanksgiving stencil painting art!
Because painting is so much fun, I decided to focus our Thanksgiving craft on using some simple stencils. I drew some simple designs, a pumpkin, two leaf shapes and a turkey of course. So, ready to have fun? Here’s how you can repeat this Thanksgiving stencil painting activity with your own little ones.
Crafting and food are the two most essential pieces of holidays for me. Without crafts and decorations, I can’t quite get in the mood. And food, well, I think that goes without saying! Since our family lives in Guatemala, I have to double up the Thanksgiving celebrations and crafting efforts because I’m the only one who celebrates it! So each year I push forward, make a big meal, do Thanksgiving crafts and decorate to spread the festive feeling to our extended family.
I’ve scoured the internet and Pinterest for some new Thanksgiving crafts to add this year. Since Peanut is 3 now, he’s getting pretty handy with crafts and seems to enjoy them quite a bit! The challenge is now to keep my 1-year-old baby girl from destroying everything. She’s getting quite handy with scribbling now, so hopefully the new crayons we bought will keep her busy.
What’s more fun than painting? Dropper painting. If your little one has already become a pro at using a paintbrush, why not add in another interesting element? There are many ways to paint, and one that we just discovered at our house is dropper painting.
Most mothers with young children have accrued a fairly large quantity of medicine droppers. We have loads! So, I thought rather than tossing them, we’d have fun painting with them. Below is everything you need to know about dropper painting:
Materials
Droppers, one for each color of paint
Tempera paints
Old containers, I used yogurt cups
Paper, I recommend using a fairly sturdy option – ours was too thin and got a bit wrinkled when it dried!
For each color, mix a tiny little bit of water with the paint so it’s slightly more runny than usual. This makes it easier to draw it up into the dropper.
Teach It!
As a Montessorian, I always teach by example. I showed my little peanut how to get paint with the dropper and drip it onto the page. After one demonstration, he was off and running! The only tricky part seemed to be getting the paint into the dropper. So, I reinforced by telling him to “squeeze” and “let go” with the dropper still in the paint.
What Benefits Are Gained with Dropper Painting?
Your child will develop his or her pincer grip
Your child can learn about color mixing
Your child will enjoy expressing themselves artistically
Pincer what? The pincer grip is the grip we use to hold a pen or pencil. Young children must develop their fine motor skills to be able to execute this grip. Any activities that practice this grip (using the pointer finger, middle finger and thumb) help strengthen your child’s muscles, preparing them to have more control as they begin writing and drawing.
My little peanut used yellow and blue. Towards the end of the activity, he began experimenting with mixing. Now, we’ve done this before, so I got comments like “Lets see what color it makes when we mix blue and yellow!” and then “Look, Mama it’s green!” Children almost always enjoy color mixing I find!
So, what are you waiting for? Get out those old medicine droppers, some paint and make some art!
