Non-messy finger painting solution

Toddlers are messy without help. I have no idea what I was thinking when I purchased four colors of finger paint.

You can see by virtue of where I was storing it, on the top shelf in my unfinished laundry room, that I was pretty keen on my kids using it. Not.

Then I had the idea of using it not as paint, but more as a drawing tool, and suddenly it became not messy at all. No paintbrushes to wash. No sponging of, well, everything. I’d even do it again.

While my kids were out with my husband, I put out two plastic placemats, each with a baggy of two glops of primary colors. I provided Q-tips to use as a stylus, and taped the bags in place. It’s sort of like one of those Zen boards you see in Brookstone.

Because my placemats are colorful, I had to put a piece of white paper behind the bags so that the paint would be visible.

Drawing on it is pretty satisfying, and the kids liked watching their lines appear and then disappear as the paint dispersed.

Author
Recent Posts

Whitney

RookieMoms.com co-founder Whitney lives with her husband, son, and daughter in the San Francisco Bay Area where she writes about parenting, crafts, and activities that moms can do with babies in tow. She and Heather also publish 510Families.com, a site for East Bay parents.