Whole Child Development
I recently had a teacher ask about art projects for the very young, particularly young two’s. She was especially concerned with the safety factor, as the little ones have a tendency to try to eat what they’re working with. I have a long list of suggestions for her, but I’ll share just one with you now!
I do enjoy Bev Bos! That woman is in a league of her own! Well, it’s thanks to Bev that I’ve learned the secret to great shaving cream painting! In the past, I’ve had children paint with colored shaving cream, and they’ve had a great experience, but unless they spread the foam out, once that foam’s dry, it all seems to fall apart. Enter Bev. Her big secret is to add equal parts Elmer’s glue and shaving cream and whip them together. Then add your color and you’re good to go! [Read more…]
I do enjoy Bev Bos! That woman is in a league of her own! Well, it’s thanks to Bev that I’ve learned the secret to great shaving cream painting! In the past, I’ve had children paint with colored shaving cream, and they’ve had a great experience, but unless they spread the foam out, once that foam’s dry, it all seems to fall apart. Enter Bev. Her big secret is to add equal parts Elmer’s glue and shaving cream and whip them together. Then add your color and you’re good to go! [Read more…]
If you’d like to incorporate a few more senses into your painting projects, add some regular salt generously to your tempera paint and use as fingerpaint or with a brush. The resulting project will have a bit more texture and grit that becomes even more visible as it dries. Use side by side with “regular” paint for a great texture comparison. This will spark interest as well as encourage the use of new vocabulary words like bumpy, gritty, sandy, smooth, etc. (If you’re not fingerpainting, you might want to use your older brushes for this one, as the salt tends to get into the bristles a bit.)
Finger-painting is an experience that no preschooler should be denied! Plunging bare fingers right into the mushy, colorful goodness and then spreading color directly from finger to paper is a gratifying experience for both the young and the young at heart! It promotes fine motor development, and is ideal for children for whom manipulating tools is difficult. It is also a fantastic sensory experience, both for touch and also for smell and sound depending on the medium used. There are plenty of different ways to do finger-painting (I’ll try to give you a few to choose from on this site) but perhaps one of the easiest ways is to use shaving cream! Shaving cream is a great medium from an adult perspective because it’s cheap, accessible, and extremely washable. Kids love it because it’s foamy! (OK, I love it because it’s foamy too.)
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