Painting with Toddlers: Art-balls

We have recently learnt an interesting technique of painting together with toddlers:

Painting with a 3 Year Old

Here is what Natalie, the author of the blog “The Mother of a Fidget”, has told us:

«First, we put a sheet of white paper, pour 2-3 drops of different paints and then put a small ball into some box. The task of the toddler is to roll the ball at the bottom of the box spreading the paints all over… Here is what our son Alon has come up with:

If there is a relief pattern on the ball, the picture will be more interesting. You can prolong the activity and make it more difficult by addinga preliminary stage of mixing the paints on a palette to get new colours and tones. You can also ask the child to make 2 paintings in such a way and then to compare them. It is unlikely that they should be the same. Or you can make a serious of paintings using different combinations of colours. You’ll get a very nice gallery!

Painting with a 1 Year Old

Of course, I could not resist the temptation to try this kind of painting with our little Soniya (15 mo)! It was the first painting activity in her life (she had tried only drawing with felt-tip pens before). Question number 1: where can I find the balls? You can follow Natalie’s idea or use a table tennis set (that was what I did). First, I gave our little one an opportunity to play with the balls and then, enjoying the impression it was making on Soniya, I put the bottles with paints in front of her one by one.

The process has started!

Beginning the activity

In the middle of the process

Art work

Painting on paper – let mummy do it from now on and Soniya liked putting her fingers into the paint and spread it on the balls. Alright! She is quite good at it!

Finally we got such nice art-balls! If our daddy played table tennis, I am sure, the new design of the balls would be a pleasant surprise for him

Anastasia

Illustrations to the Article:

The photos are taken by the narrators

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You can read this article in Russia here .

We will be happy to get your ideas and comments! They are very precious to us! But could you, please, type them with Latin letters . Thank you.

Next time we will share with you one more idea of handmade presents: how to make many of them in a short period of time!..