Water Colors

After letting him use paintbrushes to paint with water in the driveway, Baby Bear kept pulling the brushes out wanting to use them again. Seeing the opportunity for another art activity, I obliged.

I decided to try using colored water as a sort of toddler-friendly water colors activity. I filled 2 small plastic containers with about 1oz of water each. Then, I added just enough orange drink mix to one container to color the water without leaving clumps at the bottom. I didn't have any other colors of drink mix at the time, so I added a couple drops of blue food coloring to the other container. Add 1 paintbrush, 2 pieces of white construction paper, and an eager toddler to the mix, and you've got a great outdoor painting activity!

Baby Bear tried dipping the brush into the paint at first, but he became impatient and dumped the orange water on to his paper. He painted this way for a minute or so.

Then, he grew impatient with the paintbrush and decided to try painting with his hands. This did not work as well as he had hoped because the water soaked into the paper too fast for him to spread it much. He still had fun drizzling the colored water onto the paper, though.

While the blue water created a brighter picture than the orange water, I think we'll stick to using drink mixes for this activity in the future. The blue food coloring stained Baby Bear's skin a little. It came out after a couple of washes, but Baby Bear wasn't too keen on being a Smurf.