How to make paint and paintbrushes at home

Is your child bored staying inside? Are they spending too much time on their devices? We have the perfect activity you can do together. Making your own paint and paintbrushes is the perfect way to encourage exploration and creativity—and not to mention it's a lot of fun! This is a simple activity for you and your child that takes little time to set up and costs practically nothing. If your child can't go out to play, this activity will keep them busy for hours.

Prep time:

As long as it takes to gather your supplies! Most items can be found around the house, but if you do want to go out and purchase supplies, make sure you take this into account.

Duration:

Flexible. This activity can kill an hour or a whole afternoon. (Allow for at least half an hour though).

What you will need:

Paint

• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup salt
• 1 cup water
• Food colouring
• Containers (sandwich bags, bowls or Tupperware will do)

Paintbrushes

• Clothes pegs
• Materials for brushes (e.g: sponges, cotton balls, crumpled paper, leaves, flowers, whatever you can find!)
• Scissors
• Paper (you may want to have a long roll of paper, to prevent some mess)

Skills your child will learn:

• Creativity
• Fine motor
• Problem-solving

Instructions:

1. Help your child mix the flour, salt and water together until smooth.
2. Divide into separate containers and add food colouring to each to make different colours.
3. Squish (if in a bag) or stir well.
4. To start making your paintbrushes, give your child a clothes peg and demonstrate how to clip one of the materials inside. While preselecting materials for your child to use is great, it may also be a good idea to ask them to find something they think they can use.
5. Repeat until your child has a whole set of handmade paintbrushes.
6. Set out the paper and containers of paint.
7. Let them experiment!

At Turtletot, we use this activity to encourage children to be more creative and to engage with the world around them. If you’re interested in child care in Bexley, make sure to check us out! Looking for more fun ideas and activities to do with your child? Check out the rest of our blogs here or reach out to one of our specialists.