Best way to do painting with a toddler?

[rubbishmum33]

I'd like to try painting with my 18 month old, but am worried about mess and also worry about him trying to eat it or getting it in his eyes!

What's the best, least messy way to try painting with a toddler of this age, does anyone have any tips? Are there any other art activities that go down well at this sort of age as well?

Paint sticks!

Send them to Grandma's 😂

Nursery.

Nursery or childminder. Same goes for play doh

Put paint splodges in a zip lock food bag l, seal it and then stick it onto their highchair, a window or a table. It's a mess free way of exploring mixing colours and a good introduction to painting without actually painting. Especially as actually painting at this age will keep their attention for all of 0.2 seconds.

Naked?

We’ve got crayola finger paints, it’s not like real paint it a gel consistency and I only use it in the bath so I can wash it all away 😂

Otherwise yes leave it to nursery 🙈

@maddy68

Send them to Grandma's 😂

This is the correct answer !

Crafty pod

Strip them naked, put a wipeable tablecloth on the table and sit their highchair on a shower curtain at the table. Then let them have at it with brushes and their hands.

lol I came on to say at nursery 😂 I don’t know anyone else who is brave enough to do painting at home

Old clothes and a plastic tablecloth. Crayola paint is washable and non toxic

I Chuck an old bed sheet on the kitchen floor and let them paint on that. Only during lock down though. He goes to school now thankfully.

As others have said Paint sticks or the Crayola type

If you've got the big tubs of paint decant into smaller pots/tinfoil trays
Only have one or two colours out
Make sure you've protected floor/table with something - plastic sheets, disposable tablecloths, towels,
Restrict the area of operation so that the toddler isn't running about with painty hands smearing paint on every surface.
A load of paper, colour, plain, printed, recycling (card boxes) doesn't matter really.

You could try chunky brushes or sponges but they are more likely to want to use their hands.

If you want them to 'make' something you could try doing hand printing and make some christmas cards.
Old clothes for everyone involved...
Loads of wipes ready and close by.
Just let them do what they want . which for mine used to be just a large black/mud coloured blob in the middle, with maybe a splodge of a different colour.

Don't attempt in your best clothes or on your nice furniture.

I think the mess is kind of the point at this age - it's a sensory experience for them, they're interested in the process and then feel of it all and not particularly bothered about the end result. So you could do it in a really adult led and controlled mess free way but if it's only going to stress you out and the DC isn't going to get tons out of it then it's not really worth it I don't think.

All that said- I don't do it much with my toddler for the same reasons- mess and she just wants to eat it! So I keep kind of putting it off.

We have done taste safe paint with yoghurt and food colouring gel and just let he slap that about in her tuff spot tray or in the bath.

We have a crafty pod which is quite good for keeping things contained, or you can just stick an old sheet or plastic table cloth down. Full on apron/coverall type bib and either use paint sticks or just squirt a few blobs on paint on some thick paper or card - you could give him some tools like sponges, brushes, a fork, rollers etc to explore with or just let him go to town with his hands. If you want to do hand or foot prints that's a bit more of a guided thing and I found when teaching little ones the best way is to spread the paint on a sponge then press that on to their hand/foot before putting it on the card.

You could look at getting an easel or something outside in an area you can quickly hose down afterwards if that's an option.

They also love a bucket of water and big decorator type brushes to 'paint' the fence or brickwork with and then no mess to clean up.

Another thing you can do is put the paper or card inside a clear plastic wallet with a few blobs of different colour paint and then seal it up and let them pat and manipulate the paint inside the wallet.

Sit them in the bath with the paint and some paper. Let them have at it. Strip them off and do them a nice bath to wash it all off after. Lovely.

Hi OP, we used to have messy play clothes that were usually things we'd been gifted 2nd hand that I hated! Basically clothes you're happy to bin. We had a stash at that age...

Then I'd do old plastic sheeting (ours was from buying a mattress) on the floor. DH in shouting distance knowing that he was in charge of the floor clean up when finished!

Big pieces of paper and washable paints. Let the artistic experiments begin and be on hand to remove the masterpieces and put new paper in before they just go to the 'brown mush' stage - a few of them were actually quite beautiful and made the xmas card one year!

Then when it's starting to be all too much, grab child and put in shower/bath (whichever is easiest to clean!) and call DH to sort the floor mess out.

Super fun honestly but we only did it about 5 times before he was old enough to understand about being tidy. Outside in summer naked with the hose to clean up is even more fun! But not in this weather :)

Having done it, wait til they're a bit older 😂 DD was a horror for painting at that age so quickly shelved it for nursery only but once she turned two she became a lot better at doing it sensibly. It's one of her favourite activities now.

I use the little strips of paint pots with the snap lids, you can wash them out and decant from bigger bottles so you've only got a minimal paint to hand, worst case. Oh and I really didn't like the classic plastic apron, we got one that's fabric off eBay which I though would be useless but is loads better as it's not just a sheet of plastic with paint sitting ok the surface of it. Oilcloth is good for protecting things.

Failing that, the water 'painting' books you can get are great for scratching the itch without making a mess 😂

On the floor or outside. Put out a plastic mat under a big piece of paper. Let them roll cars through the paint and enjoy the patterns, or make footprints. Be prepared for a full bath immediately afterwards.

I let mine paint it always results in a shower for them both, new clothes, house covered in paint and me wishing I’d never bothered...but they love it especially the shower at the end where they “clean” out all the paint pots etc! Ziplock bag sounds great in theory I’m pretty sure mine would have munched/torn/used a screwdriver etc etc to remove the paint after 10 mins! If you care about your house just don’t! 😂😂

There is no messy way.

But in the high chair with one color and a tampon 'paintbrush' worked for my friend.

Sometimes it's as useful to give them a little bit of moisturizer to squeeze in their hands as that's the sensation they want from messy play and it doesn't stain.

Ziplock bag sounds great in theory I’m pretty sure mine would have munched/torn/used a screwdriver etc etc to remove the paint after 10 mins! If you care about your house just don’t! 😂😂

In all my years of using the bag idea honestly not one child in any setting or my own toddler has ever maintained interest long enough for them to ever get the paint out of the bag. 😂😂 Their attention spans at this age are much too short to waste time getting an entire painting area set up for them to only have to tidy it up again and hose down a small person a mere 3 minutes later.

Follow mothercould on Instagram she has great suggestions on taste safe paint as well as everything else.

I think we done the zip lock bag at that age with paint inside and a piece of paper then I got brave and gave him a brush with non toxic paint in his high chair and didn't load the brush too much in case it splattered. He was covered and he did eat it but it wasn't toxic so no harm done. The mess was confined to the high chair and him!

@maddy68

Send them to Grandma's 😂

This is the only correct answer

Nah, not for me.

I allowed crayons at that age and our 2nd born ate 2 while I was busy seeing to baby.