Toddlers love to paint with water, and parents love this activity, too; kids think they are making a masterpiece, but there’s zero mess to clean up. Today, I added a slight twist to the activity. Veronika has painted directly on pavement and sidewalks, but this time I pulled out our chalkboard for a new canvas.

I started out with a shape learning twist, and drew four shapes for her in chalk: a triangle, circle, square, and heart.

I showed her how to dip the paintbrush in a cup of water and follow along the lines of the shapes, a precursor to tracing!

The mechanics of this (and the importance of it) were beyond her of course, but she loved seeing how the wet lines she made with the paintbrush could make chalk lines disappear. It was like a magical eraser!

After that there was just the fun of painting on the chalkboard, watching the water swirl and make patterns, and turn the surface of the chalkboard darker.

Eventually she upended one of the water cups over the chalkboard surface, and then there was lots of water to swish about with her brush.

Or splash her hands! So the activity was a joy from start to finish.