Here are five fun painting ideas to get children creating, so get ready to get messy and have lots of fun! Children love painting as they can get messy, experiment with different techniques and create something that is entirely their own.

Did you know that painting can help children develop hand eye coordination, fine motor skills and concentration? It’s not only enjoyable but it helps them learn and grow. 

In this blog, we will share five fun and innovative ideas for painting with children that will not only keep them entertained but also help them learn and grow.  

Truck and Car Painting

What you need:

• Toys trucks and cars with interesting wheels
• Large paper
• Paint
• Shallow trays

What to do:

1. Put the paint in shallow trays. 
2. Tape the paper to the table or floor
3. Invite your children to drive the cars and trucks through the paint and then around on the paper to see what happens! What prints and tracks do they get? Is it different if they go faster or slower?

Fence Painting

This activity is literally water in a bucket, but is always a favourite among educators! 

What you need:

• Bucket
• Water
• Brush
• Food colouring or powder paint 

What to do:

1. Add water and little food colouring to a bucket. 
2. Let your child paint the fence (or the concrete, the cubby house, the trees!). 

Treasure hunt painting

What you will need:

• A basket to gather items
• Non-toxic paints
• Paper/cardboard/canvases/materials

What you do:

1. Set off on a treasure hunt to gather lots of different items – sticks, leaves, rocks, feathers, cotton wool balls, cotton buds, paint brushes, bits of old cloth
2. Gather all your treasures and explore! What can you create when you paint with a stick, or a feather? What happens when you hold a cotton wool ball with a peg and dip that into paint and create? What happens when you try to paint with an old piece of cloth? Is it hard or easy to paint with a rock? 

Bath Painting 

What you need:

• Shaving cream
• Paint
• Shower gel or glue
• Pots or palette
• Paint brushes 

What you do:

1. Fill pots or palette with shaving cream, add a little food colouring and mix well. 
2. Add some shower gel or PVA glue. 
3. Give your child a paintbrush and let them paint the bath, the walls or themselves! 
4. This is also a great time for your child to engage in finger painting as it’s easy to clean up.
5. Finish with a bath to wash everything clean. 

(Note: please check that it won’t stain your bath or grout.)

Swirling, whirly painting

What you will need: 

• Old strainer or colander (check out the op shops)
• Plastic or old cups
• Stirrers, like paddle pop sticks or old spoons from the op shop
• Cardboard, or a canvas
• Paint you can pour, like non-toxic acrylic paint

What you do:

1. Place the colander on the cardboard/canvas
2. Pour the paint into your cups – you can do one colour at a time, or per cup, or you can add lots of colours to one cup
3. Pour the paint into the colander and experiment! You can pour fast or slow, you can pour in a little paint and then jiggle the colander and see what happens.  You can pour in a range of colours and then jiggle the colander, take the colander away and gently tilt the cardboard/canvas to swirl and move the paint.  You can pour in the paint and watch as it slowly seeps through the colander and onto the cardboard/canvas. 

There are so many ways to play with and explore paint. Sometimes all you need to do is turn them loose with a pot of paint, a brush, something to paint and an area you don’t mind cleaning up.

Here are some inexpensive paint brushes and other goodies.

But for those days where you want to get a little more creative? We hope you enjoy our suggestions above! Be sure to get creative yourself and get in amongst the painty, messy fun!

• If you love messy play, you might enjoy our blog about mud play here!
• We get that it can be difficult to balance quality time with your children along with other responsibilities and priorities. Here is a blog with some practical steps to help.