Fun Toddler Projects: Mess Free Finger Painting

As a work from home mum, I am always looking for fun new ways for us to pass the hours. Better still if it can keep my toddler playing independently, buying me some quiet time to sneak in an article or two. So when I stumbled upon this Mess Free Finger Painting post, I was intrigued.

Who can miss the MESS FREE bit?! God sent, miracle word - less cleaning up for me to do!

If you're worrying about how expensive Crayola Finger Paint (purchasable at ToysRUs and Spotlight) are, you can always make your own out of a variety of food ingredients. You just need to raid your pantry for what you have on hand, and to be sure not to use anything your child is allergic to. Check out some of these options below. They are all non-toxic finger paint recipes:

• This recipe combines sugar, salt and cornstarch, along with water and food colouring.
• Here’s also another great recipe using flour, cooking oil and food colouring.
• Only have cornstarch, water and food colouring on hand? Then this recipe is for you.
• Martha Stewart even has her own non-toxic finger paint recipe.

Large, clear, double seal ziplock bags

Washable Paint

1. If your table isn't white you might want to tape down 2 sheets of white paper so that your toddler can actually visually see the colours.
2. Put your zip lock bag flat on the table and squeeze a generous dollop of each colour into the bag.
3. Press out as much air as possible and zip them close.
4. Tape down all the corners of the whole zip lock bag on top of the white paper earlier. You can even tape over the zipper for extra precaution.
5. I taped the bags down to the table with paper tape and that was it!

Super easy to set up and if you are only using one colour, you can actually peel the whole bag up later and store for reuse at a later date. I also skipped step one setting up the white paper because I taped it straight on to her white Ikea high chair table. Unfortunately I ran out of clear gallon zip lock bags so I had to improvise a little.

This activity is a great opportunity to teach your toddler about colours. Especially, if they can already recognise and name colours. Have them count the number of colours they can see and point out or name the colours they see.

They can draw on it using their fingers, make lines, random doodles and make hand prints. To start over, just gently spread the paint out and have them start over. All this without the mess that usually comes with conventional finger painting. Of course this is less sensory, but you can always switch between the normal and mess free finger painting methods.

Teach them about Primary Colours:

Give this a try!