Recently it has been bitterly cold outside and my boys have been bouncing off the walls. I have always parented with the philosophy that if you remove the walls kids cannot bounce off of them, but our weather here just does not want to cooperate. This has left me in desperate need of activities that will engage both of the boys (9 months and three years old). The versatility offered in Mess Free Painting Bags has been the perfect solution to get the two of them exploring and playing safely together!
For this activity, we worked on both color mixing, letter recognition, pre-writing skills, and sharing!
Items Needed to Make Mess Free Paint Bags
- Heavy Duty Ziploc Bags (buy here
)
- Tempera Paint (buy here
)
- Duck Tape (buy here
)
- Alphabet Flash Cards (buy here
)
** We found our National Geographic ABC Flash Cards at Dollar Tree, I was not able to find them online.
How to Use a Mess Free Paint Bag
I really love using mess-free painting bags because what you can do with them is endless! You can also leave these out for kids to revisit as it grabs their interest!!
Setting Up A Mess Free Paint Bag
- Pick out a couple different colors of paint that you want. Squirt them into a Heavy Duty Ziploc bag.
- Remove air from the bag (I just press it out), seal and line with Duck Tape.
- Tape bag to the window (our favorite), table, wall, or even the floor!
NOTE: Little fingers can rip into Ziploc bags so make sure that you are using a Heavy Duty bag and washable paint.
How to Play
Mess Free Paint Bags are fantastic for exploring so many different things. If your child is a sensory avoider an activity such as this is a simple way to introduce paint. We started by exploring color mixing and pre-writing skills. X’s and O’s are what we have been working on.
We eventually pulled out the cards and played a very quick game of guess that letter. It didn’t go over as well as I had hoped it would but Meatball was very much into playing a game of copy that letter.
Eventually, Roo crawled up and joined in the fun. He was absolutely amazed at the texture. It was adorable to listen to him coo and giggle!
Meatball did such a good job sharing his activity and teaching Roo how to play!
This activity was definitely a win for my kids and I cannot wait to revisit it with them again!
If your family plays with a Mess Free Paint Bag we would love to see the fun! Tag us on Facebook with @Parenting Chaos or on Instagram with #ParentingChaos!