Since Willow was born, I’ve been trying to incorporate as many creative and tactile projects as possible in our playtime. As an avid reader of , I about died of envy when I saw the amazing plexiglass easel that they had for their children. I instantly sent the link to my dad with a request: can you make me one of these? He came through in a PERFECT way! The plexiglass is amazing.
One of my favourite things to do is to take Willow outside, fill up a palette of washable, non-toxic, tempera paint and let her do whatever her heart desires. The “palette” is a veggie style tray from Dollarama, the tempera paint also from there and I bought a bunch of brushes and sponges at Dollarama too.
In this particular painting session, Willow started out more hesitant – using a brush, keeping clean and using only one colour at a time. She painted and watched how the paints went on to the easel. She then started painting the easel itself and would exclaim, “WOW!” when the paint went on the wood.
Once she built up her confidence in the regular painting style, she began mixing colours and she grabbed a sponge brush to see how the paint would “squish” onto the easel. She also tried sponges dipped in the water to see the water drag through the paint and bring some of the paint with the stripes.
After that, she moved into touching and feeling the paint. First on the glass itself and then the brushes and then just dug her hands into the paint and applied it directly to the easel.
She also was interested in the buckets of water I placed nearby. She would put the brushes and the sponges in there and then her hands and then she would dump the water out completely and ask for, “More.”
I love these kinds of activities. What sort of activities do you do with your toddler to encourage their creativity? Leave a comment below.
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