Painting is always good fun, and it’s great for your child’s development. Here are 10 creative new painting activities for your child to enjoy, whilst extending their learning at the same time.
Give a child a paintbrush and some paints, and they’ll have lots of fun, daubing color on to paper, and playing with form and layout. However, if you want to keep them engaged and entertained, it’s a good idea to vary their painting activities occasionally. It’s officially time to put away the paintbrushes and adopt a new approach! This collection of fun new painting techniques encourages your child to explore and experiment with a variety of different materials, substances and equipment.
In this collection, you’ll discover some innovative approaches to painting. You’ll also find out lots of different ways for your child to demonstrate their creativity and develop new skills.
Why Painting?
Painting is a wonderfully creative activity, which allows your child to express themselves artistically. It builds self-confidence, teaches how to analyse and process information, and can be enjoyed in a group or as a solo activity. It also offers a myriad of other educational benefits, including:
- Development of Gross / Fine Motor Skills – Children learn how to control their movement to color within the lines, and how to hold a brush properly. They can also use other materials, such as sponges and combs, to practice different types of movement.
- Experimentation – Through painting, children learn how to experiment with mixing colors, and find out how to create different effects on the canvas. They can also discover what happens if they add water or other materials to the paint, and how it changes the consistency.
- Creativity – Children are able to unleash their imagination when painting. They can create stories on canvas, and develop their own artistic creations without restriction.
- Exploring Ideas – Painting is a great way to explore ideas. For example, when discussing recycling, you could use recycled materials such as newspaper, toilet roll or tissue paper to create new effects with paint – which provides a great opportunity to discuss the topic, whilst experiencing how the materials feel, and what textures they make on the paper. Through painting, your child can also explore line, color, shape, form and design.
10 Inspiring Painting Ideas
It’s time to put away the paintbrush and encourage your child to engage in some new, exciting painting activities. This collection of innovative painting ideas will develop your child’s learning, whilst ensuring they have fun in the process.
- Car-Race Painting – For this activity, you’ll need a few old toy cars (head to the charity shop if you haven’t got any at home). Get your child to squirt blobs of paint on to a piece of paper, then drive their cars through it, experimenting with different patterns and shapes. Rolling marbles across the paper also creates interesting effects.
- Make Wrapping Paper – Kids like activities that produce an ‘end result.’ Create beautiful wrapping paper to use for future birthdays by buying a roll of paper, and getting your child to decorate it. Hand and footprints work really well, or alternatively, buy some sponges and get your child to cut out interesting shapes to use in the paint. Potato printing is also very effective!
- Draw Lines and Shapes – If your child loves to practice their fine motor skills by coloring in, they’ll like this activity. Ask your child to gather some interesting objects from around the house or backyard, then draw round them lightly with a pencil. Set your child the challenge of painting the object – but they must keep the paint within the lines.
- Nature Painting – Take your child on a walk and gather some natural materials; such as leaves, twigs and small stones. Then, when you get home, let your child create a painting, using only the things they’ve gathered from outside. Leaves make great prints, twigs can be used to drag paint around the canvas and stones can be rolled to create crazy lines.
- Paint in the Bath – Buy some special bath paints, and let your child create a watery masterpiece while they’re having their bath! If you’d rather not get your bathroom messy, your child can have a go at ‘painting’ with bath bubbles.
- Rock Painting – For this activity, you’ll need some large rocks or stones, preferably with a flat surface. Firstly, visit the library together, and find a book about ancient rock painting. Then, let your child recreate a rock painting on their very own set of stones, which they can keep afterwards. It’s a great way to learn about history, whilst creating a unique form of art.
- Get Dribbling – This activity works really well if you show your child a few paintings by Jackson Pollock. Use the images as a springboard to explore the art, and ask your child to express how they feel about them. Then, let your child recreate a Pollock masterpiece, by dribbling and splashing paint across a canvas. Beware – this can get messy!
- Scratch-Painting – Here’s a different approach to painting. Get your child to cover a canvas with thick paint. It could be just one color or a range of shades, depending on the effect your child wants to create. Then, they’ll need to use a tool to scratch at the surface (cutlery works really well) to create their picture. This technique allows your child to get detailed with the picture, and boosts fine motor skills.
- Create a Doppelganger – Buy a big roll of paper, ask your child to lie down on it, then draw round them. Before you cut the shape out, get your child to paint themselves within the outline, adding as much detail as possible. Finally, when the paint is dry, cut it out and stick it to the wall.
- Experiment with Printing – Different shapes make different prints in paint, and children love to experiment with a variety of items around the house. They can also print using just paper itself, by painting on one sheet, then pressing it against a clean sheet to leave an imprint.
Getting The Right Materials
If you provide your child with an interesting assortment of materials, their natural creativity is sure to follow. This doesn’t have to cost a fortune. For example, throw-away items like toilet roll or wrapping paper, or natural resources like pebbles and sand are ideal when experimenting with paint!
Here’s some more ideas for materials:
- Chalk and crayons
- Egg cartons
- Cotton balls
- Leaves, twigs and seed pods
- Modeling clay
- Newspapers and magazines
- Tissue paper (colored)
- String and knitting wool
- Toothpicks
- Stickers
Get Creative With Kiddit
Kids love painting, and it’s a great idea to encourage them to be creative as much as possible. If you’d like to get your child painting this Summer, you’ll find everything you need to get started at Kiddit. We’ve got a wide range of paints, easels, paint stations and much more, designed to boost your child’s learning, while ensuring enjoyment. To browse our selection, visit the Kiddit site today.
No comments yet.