Here’s a quick variation on an old idea, a safe way to let a toddler paint with no mess. In the past, I’ve sealed paint in a zip-top bag for Veronika, but this time there was a secret piece of colored paper underneath. A colorful surprise was waiting with each line she made!

To set up, place a piece of colored construction paper in a gallon-sized zip-top bag. Squirt in paint, making sure it is a different color from the paper. The higher the contrast the better, like yellow paint with blue paper or green paint over red.

Seal the bag tightly, then show your toddler how to make marks in the squishy paint with a finger. The colored paper underneath will be revealed!

This definitely earned little sounds of surprise, and Veronika liked making shapes and wiggles appear. Of course she also just liked squishing it.

Or stepping on it.

Since she’s becoming more sophisticated with her own drawings and understanding of art, she also really enjoyed when I “painted” trucks or other recognizable shapes in the bag.

Mostly, though, I let her entertain herself with this one!

If you have a toddler who wants to paint, but you’re either some place where paint isn’t available or would be too messy, here is the perfect trick: paper towels + marker + water.

I drew a picture for Veronika on a paper towel using thick lines of black marker. The image featured a truck, since right now she’s obsessed with all things that Go!

I showed her how to dip a paintbrush in water, swipe it along the black line, and “paint” the picture.

The water will make the marker color spread on the paper towel. It’s particularly neat because the black separates out into a spectrum, leaving blue and purple hues behind too. So your toddler might really think he or she is adding color!

Veronika loved the way this looked, painting along the truck, the road, the sun, and more.

So in sum, this “painting” activity is simple but fun, with a cute resulting work of art.

Veronika is very into the mail truck lately, wanting to watch our postal worker deliver the mail every chance she gets. She even got to peek inside the back of the truck! So today we recycled an old toddler favorite, with a homemade mailbox. Now that she’s older, she understands the role play involved, too.

First was the arts & crafts portion of the game: we needed to decorate a mailbox! I set out stickers and construction paper, along with an old box. She loves glue sticks and happily smeared onto strips of colored paper, which we then stuck onto the box.

I had ocean-themed stickers, which felt appropriate here in the summertime. What a beautiful mailbox!

I cut a slit in the top with a craft knife, and then showed Veronika how to stuff old junk mail through the slit.

Sometimes she had to turn a letter a little to make it fit…

…or give it an extra push to slide all the way through…

…but she was delighted with each success.

Time to open up the mailbox and see what she received!

One pamphlet just happened to have images of sheep and cows, and she was so happy. “Cow is in the mail!” She wanted to send and receive this “letter” over and over.

She also loved being able to take the lid off and put it back on all by herself, a big important toddler feeling of accomplishment.

We then decided to write a few of our own letters for big brother Travis. She loved scribbling with marker before adding her notes to the mailbox.

I could tell she was so proud to have her very own mailbox today, and left it out so she could return to it over the course of the afternoon.

 

Veronika loves cars and trucks and all things that go, so today we had fun making prints that look just like wheels, then turning the prints into little vehicles. The perfect tool for the job? Spools!

You can use empty thread spools, or wooden ones from the craft store. I set out a paper plate with a few different colors of paint, along with sheets of craft paper and some of the spools.

I showed Veronika how to dip the end of the cylindrical spool into the paint, then press onto paper.  At first she just loved that this was a way to make dot paintings.

Next I showed her that if we drew marker shapes around a few of the dots… they looked just like wheels!

We made a bus and lots of silly little cars.

She soon decided she wanted to use marker to draw more cars. What else might the circular spool prints turn into? Please share your toddler’s creation in the comments!