Ok, here it is! A baby safe painting project and a lesson
The Project:
- Carrots for the Orange
- Spinach for the Green
- Beets for the Red
- Blueberries for the Blue/Purple
- Tumeric for the Yellow
Steam each separately, then blend together 2T of the vegetable, 5 T Almond Milk, 1/3 C. Rice Flour in a blender until smooth. Repeat with each vegetable. Total prep time: Approximately 3 hours (if you consider the trip to the store to buy all the ingredients).
But look at those colors! Don’t they look fantastic? This was sure to be a GREAT project.
Ok, so first I fed you so that you weren’t tempted to eat the paint. Then, I left you in your chair with your bib on so you could be as messy as you wanted to be.
You started out strong. The red beet paint was going on smoothly and you were intrigued with it all; the paint, the brush, and the paper. But, after about 30 seconds with the red, you wanted more.
So, it was time to try finger painting. Just run your fingers through all the colors. Go ahead. It’s fun!
One swish through each of the colors, and…
You were done!
Ok, Grandma. I tried it. Can we be done now?
Onto the floor went the paper. Onto the floor went the brush. I grabbed the cup of paint just in time. One finger into your mouth, just to see if it at least tasted good. The verdict – NO!
That was it.
Get me out of this chair, Grandma. All done!
Well, there was a good deal of clean up that had to happen first. I tried to wash off your hands, one at a time, but you were wanting out. Then I had a great idea.
I gave you a pan of water to play in. Into the water went your hands. Now this was fun. But, I turned my back…just for a second, and you decided to see if you were strong enough to lift the pan, tip the pan, and dump the water.
Now there was just half a pan of water!
And the floor was soaking wet.
But your hands were clean…and you were having more fun with this than the paint.
I mopped up the floor, then used a towel to soak up the water on your tray and you liked this even more:
Sucking the water out of the towel was the best part of the whole project
Total occupied time: 3 minutes
But the end result:
Priceless!
The Lesson:
There are lots of ideas that sound really cute. They take time to prepare but time in preparation does not mean that a baby will be entertained longer. Truthfully, all I really had to do was give you a pan of water and a wet towel. But, how fun would that have been all by itself, in pictures?
Anyone need some paint? I have lots left over!
Days With Grandma 