As mentioned in my previous post in the baby play series fine motor development is important in the process of developing towards literacy the other skill that leads to writing is mark making whether this is on a small scale through using a finger to make a print on a piece of paper or using giant strokes to paint a fence, any form of making marks is leading towards writing.
T contemplating the finger paints
The first explorations into mark marking for babies is generally with food – I wrote one of my first posts on Edible Finger Paints with using baby purees to paint with on the high chair tray. I now return to this and we have extended to use finger paints which are still non-toxic and when used with J he didn’t seem to like the taste so didn’t eat them – T is very different and actually loves the taste, but as they are none toxic and made from cooking ingredients they are safe to use with babies that are over 6 months old.
What you need
1 cup Corn Flour (Corn Starch)
1 cup Cold Water
3 cups Boiling Water
Liquid Food Colouring
How the fun happens – making the paint
This is very much an adult make process as it involves using boiling water and mixing over a heat source. First I add 1 cup of cold water to the corn flour in a bowl and mixed it together. Then using freshly boiled water I added a cup at a time to the water/corn flour mix and mixed it together. I then put this mix into a saucepan over a heat and stirred it until it became a consistency of custard.
I used liquid food colouring to colour the paint and then have stored it in clean baby food jars – so far we have had them a week and although needing a little mixing at first they are still good for T to paint with.
Our finger paints and the bright colours that we made
How the fun happens baby finger painting
Ok – first I should say this is more of baby exploring paints rather than T painting anything as at 10 months she is way to young to expect to make marks or produce anything instead I am using the finger paints as a sensory experience for her – utilizing her sight, touch and surprisingly smell (oh and in her case also taste!)
T loved the feel of the paints
I put some of the paints on her high chair tray and kept them separate so part of her play would be mixing the colours together which of course she did once she had had a good feel of the paints. She loved the jelly like feel of the paints and enjoyed squishing them between her fingers – it was interesting as well to see her play with the different colours – she was drawn first to the red and then blue and green with yellow being the last for her to play with.
T loved picking up the paint squishing them in her hands and splatting back on the tray
Just a warning – don’t do this with liquid food colouring if you are about to go out anywhere as although the paint was easy to clean off the high chair tray and high chair – it wasn’t so easy to clear off of T and until she had a long soak in the bath she was dyed a lovely shade of red.
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Fabulous! Nothing quite like a bit of fingerpainting with homemade paint!
Thank you for sharing on Kids Get Crafty!
Maggy
T looks like she’s having a great time Did she end up with a muddy brown colour?
I love how bright your colors turned out! US food coloring stains even high chair trays, so I rarely use it for any craft projects…
maryanne @ mama smiles recently posted..Six Years Old!!!
Our high chair tray was well and truely stained or at least appeared to be – but I use milton spray once a day to clean it and I find that removes every and all stains (works on coffee stains in cups as well)
I find the food coloring will come out of counters if you do a mix of baking soda and lemon juice and let it sit for several minutes.
I just love how you are exploring art with your baby!!!
Rebekah @ The Golden Gleam recently posted..Nature Collage Heart – Love Theme
Ohhhh will have to try that Thank you for the tip.
I was just thinking of what activity I could recommend for her 8 month old. I think this is it! Thanks for sharing.
Krissy @ B.Inspired Mama recently posted..Kids I Spy Heart Valentine Tutorial and Free Printable
We finger painted today with sugar free cool whip and a few drops of food coloring. We didn’t have any stains but I didn’t have to add much food coloring to the cool whip to make it bright. And in the end it didn’t last as long as my lo would have liked. He started eating too much of it and not playing. But he had fun playing and he is 7 months.
Did the ingredients have to used for each color or did you separate it beforee adding the foood color?
I separated the mixture out into containers then added the food colouring – you would have way too much. The jars above were made from the mix plus a jar of plain that I left for mixing more if needed.
Cerys Parker recently posted..Cooking with Kids
[...] Baby Play finger Painting [...]
[...] I want to get creative with some of the things I do with him so again I turned to my trusty friend Google and started looking at other blogs with ideas for things to do. I particularly wanted to know more about finger painting and find a recipe I could make at home easily that would be ok if Monkey ate it. He puts EVERYTHING in his mouth so being edible was a key feature for me. I found the lovely blog of Rainy Day Mum and her recipe for finger paints, which can be found here. [...]
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Used this recipe today for play time with four babies aged between 7.5 and 8.5 months. Swapped the food colouring for fruit with strong colours. I used spinach, blackberries and dried apricot. I stewed each in a little water, puréed with a hand blender then passed through a sieve before mixing. Stored in fridge overnight and stirred before using. I did chuck afterwards as unlike food colouring will go off. Great colours, great recipe for the base mix and safe. Thanks for sharing with us, we had a great time!