Containing the Mess - Painting in the bath with babies and toddlers

 

There are so many parents who find messy play at home a nightmare, they want to create beautiful artwork with their babies and toddlers but they don’t want their home destroyed in the process. I was the same, I’m not overly house proud really, and mess actually doesn’t bother me too much but it is definitely easier if it can be contained.

We found a solution. The bath. Easy wipe clean surfaces, containment, water friendly. Perfect.

 

We have been using the bathroom as our art workshop ever since. All I do is tape up a piece of paper or a canvas onto the tiles at the back of the bath, strip off L and put her in the bath with various brushes and paint in pots. L has fun and can pretty much do whatever she wants. Often she’ll paint the bath and the tiles as well as the picture. Once she’s finished I peel the pictures from the tiles and put them somewhere to dry. Then I turn on the shower over our bath, if you don’t have one, just start running your bath.

 

Our sensory play then continues with water play in the bath while L also gets clean. Win-win in my opinion.

Ice-Cavation – Ice age themed sensory tub

 

Sensory bins are always fun and L loves to play with ice and water. This one was really easy to set up and takes almost no prep time at all, the only thing you have to wait for is for the water to freeze.

I froze small toy animals in small tupperware tubs filled with water. I also made normal ice cubes but added some glitter to them.

I put blue and clear glass pebbles in the tub as the ‘sea’ and also added in some whiskey rocks (frozen rocks used as ice cubes with whiskey).

 

The theme for this tub was Ice Age. L had to melt the large ice blocks to rescue the animals frozen inside. L used a small sippy beaker to drip/pour warm water onto the ice blocks. We used a different tools to try to break into the ice and rescue the animals.

 

It took time, this was an all afternoon activity with many breaks. L kept going back to the tub and playing more. The large ice blocks melted at different rates so the animals were released at different times. L’s face each time an animal was rescued was amazing, she was so happy with herself, she kept saying ‘I did it, I saved him’ and we had lots of high fives.

 

 

What we learnt while playing - Ice is cold. Warm water will melt ice. Basic thermodynamics. History, we talked about how a long time ago the world got cold and was covered with ice, and how lots of animals were frozen just like ours are now.

Motor skills development – we built towers with the whiskey blocks improving hand eye coordination and learning about balancing objects. We used tools, a chopstick, a plastic knife and fork and a paintbrush, improving hand dexterity and strength and working on our tripod pencil grip.

Imaginative play – we became super animal rescuers! We also added other animal to the mix later including a penguin and a whale who swam in sea with L making up little voices for them.  

We had great fun with this tub and will definitely do it again.

 

Always play with your kids :)

xoxo

 

Stamp Painting with Plastic Shot Glasses

 

This is a super simple messy play idea with a twist. Today we did a beautiful painting using plastic shot glasses as our painting tool of choice.

Using the shot glasses as a stamp rather than using a brush creates a different experience for your little one not to mention getting a unique piece of art for your house.

 

We used:

·         A small canvas (I almost always like to use a canvas because you never know when you’ll get a really lovely piece that you want to hang- plus you can always give your child’s creations as gifts for family at Christmas and birthdays)

·         8 plastic shot glasses

·         3 plastic plates for our paint

·         6 different paint colours and white added to each plate

 

 

L really enjoyed todays painting, she stamped lots and also rolled the glasses across the canvas and then got her hands involved mixing the colours together. Inevitably our end product has no sign of any circle stamping but that was never really the point J

 

The finished product

 

Some close-ups to show the beauty :)

 

 

Don't forget to play!

xoxo