Have you ever tried doing a foam shape painting activity with your toddler or preschool kids? I’m sharing how much fun my kids had with this mess-free idea!
I’m so excited to share one of my favorite things to do with Aniston with other moms. Juggling an infant and a toddler can be rough some days and I had been searching for various things to keep Aniston occupied while I put Heidi down for a nap or when I was breastfeeding. (There is NOTHING that makes you feel more helpless then when you are breastfeeding and your toddler needs you!)
Anyways, I stumbled across several blog posts about using water to “paint” foam shapes on to the window and was so intrigued. I had some colorful foam sheets so I cut them into various shapes and put a little bit of water in a plastic cup. (If you don’t have any – you can pick them up at the dollar tree or any craft store. You can also buy pre-cut shapes if you prefer. Make sure to get the non-adhesive kind. You can find a tub of around 3000 pre-cut nonadheasive shapes in this Amazon link.)
I sat down by Aniston and handed her a paintbrush. She was barely over the age of 2 so I would say, “Make it sticky-sticky!” Then I would demonstrate how you could paint the back of the shape with water and it “magically” sticks to the window. She was amazed!
After a little bit of practice with her, she could do it by herself. I loved keeping the supplies in a tub to pull out when Heidi needed me and Aniston needed to be busy.
This has also become a favorite activity for us to pull out when Aniston has friends over. Mainly because the clean up is minimal and it keeps kids entertained for a long time! Aniston has a bit of a crush on our friends’ son, Cole. (As you can see in the picture:)) Aren’t they the cutest?!?!
When he and his sister, Reese came over, they loved painting the shapes. Cole cut out new shapes and Reese and Aniston stuck them on the window.
I was so impressed with how pretty the window looked when they finished and they had the best day together!
We’ve also painted shapes with Aniston’s cousins, Rex and Micah. They are two very busy boys but this kept them occupied for a pretty good amount of time. Rex had a different idea about how to get the shapes on the window. He told me to paint the window and then he stuck the shapes on top. 🙂 Either way works great!
One more little tip – if you are working on this activity with little ones, make sure the pieces don’t get cut too small since this can be a choking hazard. I’ve had to rush around a few times picking up the tiny ones before Heidi can get to them.
I’m looking forward to letting my kindergarten students paint words on the window using the precut foam letters. I know they would love that. I’ve also been thinking of some shape recognition practice. There are so many ways to have fun with this. Let me know how this project goes for you!
Leave a Reply