Tuesday's Tot Craft Time: Wall Art

Sometimes it is nice to buy some blank canvases and let your child paint on them.  When they are done, you can hang it up somewhere in the house.  These two pieces that my youngest son painted are hanging up in his room.  The top one is his first painting that he did before he turned one.  He used tempera paint.

This one was painted over a month's time using do-a-dot paint.  These paints are nice, because the paint tube is also the brush.  Many kids just make lots of dots when using it, but my son used it like a marker.  The bottom right hand side looks like a yellow house to me.

If you are worried about your child making a muddy mess, then limit the colors that he/she uses to those found next to each other on the color wheel.  Avoid giving them black.  This way they can mix colors and still have a bright and colorful painting.  Allow your child to get messy.  You can set up the paint area in a way that it is easy to clean up afterwards.  Give them a large shirt or an apron to help protect their clothing, or dress them in clothes that they can get messy in.  During the Summer, let them paint outside so that you can clean them and their paint area up with the hose.