By Danielle Truen
Art is a great way to keep yourself and your kids occupied while allowing them to have fun, be creative and express themselves.
One the biggest hits with children and art always seems to be paint - probably because it’s messy. All jokes aside, there are lots of ways you and your family can get creative with your painting, so get out your paint, paint brushes and garbage bags, and get ready to Picasso it up.
Rock painting
Rock painting is not only a great way to get creative and get out of the house for a bit, but as a bonus, you don’t have to stress about it ruining anything inside your house. It also doesn’t always have to be rocks - paved driveways make for a great canvas, and like chalk, if you don’t want it to last for a long time, you can use washable paint and the next rainfall (or snow) will have it washed away in no time.
Spin painting
If you’re not entirely familiar with spin painting, don’t worry, it’s super easy to grasp and probably one of the least messy of them all (maybe). Just place an old paper plate into a bowl, or better yet, an old microwave cover. As it spins, you drop, drip or paint the plate, creating quite an abstract piece.
Paint by numbers
If you’re someone who is creative and likes to draw, an easy activity is to grab a canvas, create a drawing and create a number/colour list for your kids to paint. For example, if you draw some grass, you could number it 2, and on the colour wheel 2=green. But if you’re not creative or just not feeling it, you can find paint by number canvases at most local dollar stores.
Finger painting
The dreaded finger painting doesn’t need to be as scary as everyone thinks. All you need are some garbage bags or old cardboard to lay down and a bucket nearby to create a no-mess handwashing station and you will be safe from the fingerprint monsters.
Sponge painting
Instead of throwing away all your old sponges, you can save them and use them for sponge painting. The cool thing about painting with a sponge is that you can adjust the size to however large you need with just a few snips of the scissors.
DIY puffy paint
All you need is shaving cream, flour, glue and a few drops of food colouring, and boom, you have yourself some puffy paint. Super easy to make, and super fun to play with both wet and dry. Puffy paint is a hit amongst most kids these days.
