Mess-less Fingerpainting

Am I the only one who hates cleaning up fingerpainting messes???  Even setting up the event is a process.  The table needs to be covered with plastic, the floor needs a drop cloth, the child needs a smock...nevermind cleanup!

Which is why mess-less fingerpainting is such a breeze!  No mess, no handwashing, no clothes stains...but cute paintings, and a great sensory experience!

Process:

1) Take a gallon ziplock bag.  Place an 8x11 sheet of paper inside the bag, and put generous blobs of paint scattered on top of the paper (inside the bag). 

2) Zip the bag, taking care to push out most of the air, without smearing any of the paint.

3) Let your child go to town, spreading the paint through the plastic all over the paper. 

4) When he/she is finished, carefully pull the plastic bag away from the paper and pull the paper out to dry.

In addition to creating a cool art project, this is a great sensory experience.  Feeling the "squish" of paint underneath the plastic is a unique texture to explore.  The activity also lends itself to finger-isolation practice, as the pointer finger can be used in isolation to spread the paint.

And once again, it's messless!  A fun sensory activity, with zero clean-up!

Indoor Snow Day

I'm sure I'm not the only mom to confess that I really dislike getting my children dressed to play in the snow.  Without exaggeration, it takes a good 15 minutes to pull the snowpants on my squirming child, chase him down the hallway to squeeze the boots on his feet, put on the jacket, pull the hat over his ears (once, twice, three times, as he keeps pulling it off), and then tackle the mitten situation...whoever thought putting thumb holes on toddler mittens was a good idea, clearly never had a child of their own.

So with this experience in my background, I have pretty much tried to limit snow adventures to special occasions in the winter!  Ty loves the snow though - loves looking at it, loves playing in it.  So this winter, I decided to bring the snow inside to Ty.  This ended up being a 45 minute activity that he absolutely loved.  In fact, he cried when the snow melted and he realized that snow time was over. 

The method is simple - take a large bowl.  Go outside, fill it with lots of snow (fluffy, yet sticky snow is fantastic!).  Get out smaller bowls, spoons, ladles, forks, and let your child go to town.  If you really want to get creative, you can teach your child the art of snowball and snowman-making. 

The best part of this activity?  Snow leaves behind no debris...the only clean up is cold water from the melted snow.  The snow can get flung, dropped, smeared...and the only result will be cold water.  And hey, I'm sure any floor in the house of a toddler can use a little extra water for cleaning! 

Indoor snow days are a blast!  Have fun!