I've been reaching back to my own childhood a lot lately to come up with fun yet simple activities to share with the kids. I remembered playing with a homemade paint bag at a friend's house as a child. Thinking back, my friend's mom probably didn't trust us with paints so she poured some into a plastic bag and taped the top shut.
You can create the same thing using a gallon-sized freezer bag and some tempera paint. Make sure the paint you use is not too runny. Spread the paint around evenly in the bag and let your child draw with his finger. You can let your child practice drawing shapes, numbers and letters over and over. And as long as the bag stays closed (tape it shut if you want) you can avoid a mess.
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Hair Gel works really well too! I used this lots when I taught special ed.
Very cool idea. Could be fun on a long car ride, too.
Heh, I wouldn't trust my kids (2 and 4) with this on a car ride, but maybe older kids would do better. I do think this is cool and plan to make them--maybe today!
I'm thinking of trying this as well, though I might use vacuum seal bags with a little extra space on top in place of the freezer bag as I don't completely trust my little guy not to open it and 'paint' my dining table. Has anyone done this? There may be a slight risk that the machine that seals it pulls out a little paint, but it could work.
My toddler is way too into opening ziploc bags for this to work safely, but I think some duct tape might be enough to deter him! Very cute idea.
great idea! will for sure try this (with duct tape..just to be safe)! especially love the idea of practicing printing with it.
I love this idea. My daughter is easily annoyed - to the point of tantrums - by getting dirty with paint. This could keep things quieter around here... Thanks.
Just tried this with 20 month old- great idea. Thanks.
My mom did the same thing with us as kids - except with pudding instead of paint.
Yes, they do this at my son's school. In the nursery class last week they had some very goopy homemade playdough stuff sealed in a bag for the kids to squish, roll with a rolling pin, or whatever they wanted to do. A sealed bag can great for all sorts of materials that might be fun to play with, but are just too messy to give the kids direct access to. (Of course it's great to let them get right in there and get messy sometimes, but sometimes you just don't have the time or the patience.)
Someone above mentioned hair gel. You can use it to get kids to draw letters in with their fingers. They do sensory stuff like this with handwriting at my son's school too... building letters out of straws, pieces of wood, pieces of sandpaper, and so on.
very cool idea for long car rides or keeping the kids busy during dinner prep.
it is half a cup (total 4 oz) of paint that goes into the bag. I just did this last week and it works great. Make sure to use a contrasting color paint to the table that it will be used on so that the pictures he/she draws will be clear.
Good Luck!