Activity for Toddlers : Painting with Cotton Swabs and Fingers
Brie is now two weeks away from turning two!
And I thought today, I’ll share with you one simple activity idea for toddlers, based on what we did together the other day.
What we did :
Brie explored and played with different colours, and saw the ‘effect’ it made on paper.
Using … watercolour paint, cotton swabs and just her own little fingers!
TIPS :
1. No need to ‘hold’ their hands and tell them HOW to draw
Some parents (or nannies!) automatically hold the child’s hand and draw on the paper for them.
I tend to disagree with this though.
I’d say : Let them draw all on their own. Yes, even though the strokes and the colours are NOT to your liking =)
Because in an activity like this, results should never be the main goal.
Let them enjoy the process, feeling the colours and textures on their fingers, and seeing the strokes they themselves make on paper.
2. Do the activity together with them.
It does make the child feel that you’re interested in what they do, and it’s a nice bonding time as well between the two of you.
Also, when we’re with them, they’re likely to be more engaged in the activity for longer.
3. To be less ‘stressed’ about the potential mess they make during this activity, here’re some ideas on what you can do :
> Avoid doing this activity on your ‘precious’ tiles or parquet flooring (if you’d mind the mess on it)
> Spread newspaper across the floor instead, and let the child sit and paint there
> Let the child paint ‘outside’, eg. At the backyard, or in our case, at the balcony
> Let them wear clothes that you don’t mind if it gets stained / splattered with paint
> Do this activity before their shower time? =)
When Brie started to paint with her fingers, I drew circles on the drawing paper with a crayon.
Then I asked Brie to paint WITHIN the circles.
She did some within the circles, and of course everywhere else too =)
The point is, I’d like her to learn to place colour within a shape as well, a simple prelude to learning how to colour within the lines =)
…
Have fun with the kiddos, everyone!
