Baby Painting! Of course that will be messy right? But is it safe to expose babies to paint, after all most of it will end up in their mouth, all over their face and in their skin.
Well even though there are many of alternatives like making your own paints using natural safe ingredients or non-toxic "safe" varieties many parents just won't go there.
So here is an easy, not so messy way to introduce baby to colours, textures and paint play while they learn some hands on skills needed to self-feed.
I used a children yogurt that was baby safe and mixed it into 3 different containers, using one drop of natural food colouring I mixed a yellow, pink and blue shade of yogurt. I gave the containers to Miss Cherub when she was on her high chair so she could explore them safely on her table. It was a bit of an experiment and i wasn't sure how she would react but she loved it and it was easy to clean up and wash off after.
I left the spoons in the containers so she could get some practice using and handling the spoons. She is at the age now she is interested in self-feeding but needs to further develop her gross motor skills and hand/eye coordination in order to succeed. So she did enjoy some colourful yogurt but the majority of it was paint.
The splatters and drops she tipped out of the container on to her tray were poked out and smeared in every fashion possible. She explored the squishy texture between her fingers and payed close attention to the colours after she mixed them around with her hand.
It was a yummy bright Baby painting expedition.
Miss Cherub enjoyed herself tactfully experimenting with the containers; handling them, tipping and turning them to see the yogurt drop out, putting the spoon in to scoop it out and eating some, while some she flung and splattered on the tray. She used her fingers to scoop some out, and them in different ways she run her fingers through the different colours, some times with her pointer finger, sometimes trying to grab it in a pincer grip but mostly she rushed her palms through it smearing it together.
Clean up was simple; wash the tray & containers in the sink, wipe the baby clean. done!
Learning concepts:
First Colours & Colour mixing
Exploring Textures
Sensory Play
Confidence with food
Bilateral coordination
Hand/eye coordination
Self feeding skills
Developing pincer grip and handling containers
Gross Motor Skills
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Good on you for letting her get messy! Messy play is so important. :)
ReplyDeleteYogurt is such a wonderful 'painting' tool! Thanks so much for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThanks for linking this fun post to Tuesday Tots. I'm featuring it this week :)
ReplyDelete