Painting on a Chalkboard

Sweet Pea is 26 months.

From: One of my friends suggested this activity.

Materials:

• Chalkboard.  (See the Notes from the Trenches.)
• Paint brush.
• Small bowl of water.
• Towel for drying the chalkboard.
• Sponge to wipe up spills.

Procedure:

• Show your tot how to dip the paint brush in the water and use it to paint on the chalkboard.
• Let your tot paint.
• When the chalkboard is saturated, show your tot how to use a towel to dry it off.  You should be able to dry it off fairly quickly and your tot can paint with water on it again.

Observations: Sweet Pea had a grand time with this and worked on it for a very long time.  She wanted me to paint letters on chalkboard for her and then she seemed to like painting over them.  She also had a wonderful time using the towel to dry the chalkboard and start over again.  I would recommend this for other tots.

Notes from the Trenches: This activity was very wet.  After painting for a while, Sweet Pea wanted to start pouring the water back and forth between bowls.  Make sure you have an extra towel nearby.

Also, this activity was actually supposed to be something else, but it didn’t quite work out that way.  I bought a $1.99 double-sided craft chalkboard from Micheal’s, intending to do a “Draw on a Chalkboard” activity.  However the chalkboard was so low quality that Sweet Pea couldn’t make any marks on it with the chalk.  I tried to draw on it myself, but it didn’t work very well even when I pressed down hard.  Sweet Pea did love erasing my marks, but they didn’t actually come off very well either.   Since using chalk on the chalkboard didn’t work out, I remembered that one of my friends had suggested painting with water on a chalkboard and decided to try that.  If I had it to do over again, I would probably buy a much higher quality chalk board from Office Depot.  I hate bad chalkboards!

Rating: 3 Stars * (Fun, Easy, Independent)