Painting with your baby is entirely possible (and won’t destroy your house). You can start giving your child non-toxic or taste safe art supplies to explore as soon as they are able to sit in a high chair. They will likely be more into exploring the art supply than doing any actual art. As they touch, smell and maybe toss the crayons, they will still be engaging in a great exploratory sensory and motor experience.
As they progress closer to 1 you will begin to see them interested in participating in art. You can put them in a giant box with materials (link to instagram) or tape a canvas to the wall of the shower to keep the mess at bay (link to instagram post)
First art supplies to have on hand:
- Crayola My First Crayola Palm-Grip Crayons
- Crayola Large Washable Crayons (for when you’re ready to move on from palm grasp crayons)
- Crayola My First Wash Tripod Grip Markers
- Crayola 24 Coloured Pencils
- Crayola My First Textured Paint Brushes
- Crayola Washable Poster Paint (this actually washes off everything...including walls ? )
- Crayola Washable Watercolours
- Puffy stickers (they’re easier for little fingers) like the Melissa & Doug Puffy Stickers
- Cardstock Paper (it holds up better than printer paper to excessive paint or water your littlest littles throw at it)
- Construction Paper Pad (doing the same activity but on different color paper brings a little interest. You can also use water and paintbrushes to paint on construction paper)
- Painter’s Tape (taping paper to the table helps keep the mess at bay and from a masterpiece from landing wet paint side down on the carpet)
- Crayola My First Safety Scissors (these are great, blade free scissors for kids to start learning with)
- Kwik Stix Paint Sticks
- Wonder Stix 24 Color Set (these draw on any surface from paper to wood. We use them to draw on the windows and they wash off super easily. Kids can also help wash them off so its life skill building and extends the activity)
- Con-Tact Brand Paper (I taped this to the wall with painters tape sticky side out and create murals and collages)
- Stamps (we really like the ones from Melissa & Doug Deluxe Wooden Stamp Set)
Put these supplies to good use by signing up for Earlybird where you will find lots of playful art activities to help your child develop their sensory, motor and other school readiness skills -right from those early days.
