Finger painting for all ages!

When you have group of children who vary in ages and ability levels, it is sometimes hard to find an activity that appeals and is appropriate for everyone. We all love to finger paint. Spider man (3) especially likes to finger paint.
Even though there are a variety of non-toxic finger paints on the market, I still feel better just having the tots use homemade paints. I can't trust Princess (17 months) and Lightning McQueen (10 months) enough to be sure that they are not ingesting a copious amount of non-toxic store bought paint.
Home made finger paint:
2 cups of water
1/2 cup corn starch
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbs sugar
A few drops off food colouring or jello powder.
Heat all of the ingredients (except for the food colouring) on the stove until it is smooth. Split into containers and add the food colouring. This finger paint is a little bit thicker making it easier to glob, spread and spear on a variety of surfaces. Spider man (3 y/o) and Sunshine (3 y/o) usually like to help make the paint while the babies sleep. I store it in the fridge for about 3 days. The kids love taking this paint outside to paint our water table, deck, toys and bins. It also works on paper, however you need to let the papers dry for a long time after. Lightning McQueen and Princess usually enjoy painting the inside of my white basins. When we are done, we all clean up and spray everything off with the hose. Any clothes that are coloured usually get stain spot treatment and thrown into the washer on a rinse cycle. We have yet to create any stains.

Another popular "finger paint" is home made pudding. Sometimes I just mix it with coco so we have brown pudding. Other times, I make vanilla pudding and add a little bit of food colouring to it. The kids love licking their fingers while creating their masterpieces. Although I do let the kids pudding paint on paper, we have yet to keep a pudding masterpiece.

Another method of finger painting I have tried with the little tots (I usually do this when the bigger tots are painting with brushes and other tools), is painting in a bag. I add a sheet of paper, and paint to the inside of a bag, then tape it down with painters tape and let the little tots go. After they get board with the painting, they usually put their fine motor skills to work and tear the tape off of their trays in an effort to free their painting.

Until next week, 
Alicia