Easy painting with kiddos...

Painting can sometime be an intimidating activity. Visions of your children looking like these may be enough to make your blood run cold. With a little preparation painting can leave little clean up. Painting outside is my first choice, but when done right inside can be just as easy. Preparation is the key, these are the simple step I use to prepare:

1. First I have a tablecloth to cover the table.
2. Place a bag of wipes and a small bottle of lotion on the table. I store the table cloth, lotion, and wipes in a drawer next to our table so they easily accessible.
3. With the table covered I get my tackle box of paint. Paint-shirts, paper cups, disposable plates, paint, and brushes are stored in one tote. Putting the paint on a plate keeps is contained and gives a great pallet for mixing. Best of all I toss it when I am finished.
4. Just before we start painting I lotion up my little artists hands. This works very well with ink projects too. Hands are so much easier to clean up if lotions is used first.

I let the kids choose their colors for painting, fill their plate and let them get started. Once they begin I place a small (very small) amount of water in their cup and set it on a napkin. I let them paint as long as they are interested, but before they get bored, I start talking about what we do when before we leave our table. As long as they take off the paint shirt and wipe their hands (or have them wiped) with a baby-wipe they are free to get down. We have a line with clips hung in our garage that works well drying the art created outside and prevents them from being blown away. I place the paint back in the tackle box after each squirt, so all I need to do is place the art in a safe place, put the napkin in the cup and toss the paper products. A quick rinse of the bushes and a roll of the tablecloth completes our art project.

The pictures above were taken when oldest son was young. These are a few of his friends that had come over to play. After a good coat of lotion, they took off clothes that couldn't get paint on them and replaced them with ones that could. I gave them each a color and they covered themselves, the paper, and each other with it. I had a roll of newsprint unrolled in the back yard and they walked, crawled, ran, patted, and rolled on the paper. They had a blast and after a spray with the hose and quick towel dry they were ready for the next activity. I let the sun dry the painting and sent home a section with each boy.