Fun with Fingerpaint and Boxes

For a child there isn't anything much better than being allowed to make a mess and having a big box to play in. For the past couple days I've had one happy kid because that's exactly what we've been doing with a combination of fingerpaints and Nana and Grandpa's box from their new dishwasher!

It started out with a regular fingerpainting session. We covered the kitchen table with newspapers and cut stamps out from sponges. We also only bought red, yellow, and blue tempera paint, so we could have a little fun with color mixing. Our three year old Sam had lots fun creating colorful art!

 I love this rainbow hand print! We basically made a color wheel on a paper plate, and he stuck his hand in it and put it on the paper!









The day ended something like this.

















And then things got really crazy. Grandpa finally took the dishwasher out of the box! Sam wanted to turn it into a fort. To make it really special we told him that we could take the box outside and paint it. The key to this project is to not care how messy the kids get and let them go for it! Tempera paint is washable, but its still a good idea to strip 'em down, (good for when they're younger) or wear old clothes.

Here's Sam painting the box.















These are some of the stamps we cut from sponges. The green blobby one is a sassafras leaf, Sam asked for it because sassafras is his favorite tree.

Here is the paint we mixed, set up color wheel style to add a little education to the craziness!

 Final results! You will notice on the left side of the picture two red footprints on the driveway. There was a threat of rain in weather report so we put the box in the garage to dry, and we'll bring it in tomorrow so Sam can set up camp in is fort. When you're done make sure to give the kids a bath or spray them down with a hose in the yard!

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