Week 2: Make and Paint With Homemade Finger Paints

So, I did this for the first time with Chompy when she was about six months old. We followed this recipe at The Imagination Tree. I halved it, though, because I know I'm not going to save this stuff for later. People certainly can, but I know I won't.

* 1 cup of corn starch
* 1/2 cup of cold water
* 2 1/4 cups of boiling water
* Liquid food coloring

The recipe calls for stirring the boiling water into the bowl of cold water and corn starch one cup at a time.
Then you split it into separate cups or bowls and add the food coloring.

I actually cooked this on the stove like I was making gravy, by adding the corn starch to the hot water to thicken it. Not surprisingly it ended up lumpy like my gravy does  (I am not a good stirrer, and I added too much, too fast), but the kids don't care yet, and Chompy liked helping mix in the color.

Looking around at other websites, it looks like this can also be done with wheat flour, as well.
They have some pretty cool pictures up online of all the kids using the finger paint, and when I did it with Chompy the first time she loved it. At two, she liked the mixing part a lot more than the painting part, but she still liked it. She also wasn't willing to share her paints with her little brother, but I soon realized that Stinko's mashed peas make a just as edible, non-toxic finger paint.

Chompy Painting it up

Stinko and his peas

This week was easy, and we used things that were already on-hand, which is the best way to do things. Especially since we had a busy Father's day weekend and everybody was feeling a little tired.

Next week we'll try something else!