Painting is a fantastic activity for babies and young children, playing with paints can support a baby’s creative development, and help to stimulate their minds. When your toddler paints this stimulates the right side of the brain, helping your child to develop and learn.

When toddlers play with paint this is an important form of sensory play, this covers any kind of play which relies on hearing, sight, taste, touch, smell, or taste. Sensory activities help babies to explore, create and investigate. Activities like these help the brain to develop to process sensory info.

Using paints toddlers can learn about colours, shapes, and sensations. The best part is you don’t even need to use a regular paintbrush. There are plenty of different ways to get creative and make painting more fun for your toddler.

1 . Bubble wrap painting

Get yourself some bubble wrap and some child-safe paint brushes, help your toddler to apply paint to the bubble wrap, exploring the feelings, colours, and sounds. When you’re choosing a paint it’s best to choose a non-toxic option.

Many traditional paints are made with toxic chemicals which you don’t want getting on your baby’s skin. The best thing about non-toxic paints is that they are usually eco-friendly and affordable.

2. Ice painting 

Make a batch of ice cubes and encourage your toddler to use these to paint with. They’ll love the cool sensation of the ice, and watching the colours swirl as the ice melts. It’s best to try this with a piece of cardboard or thick canvas, (regular paper will get super soggy). Watch in delight as your baby enjoys their ice-painting session.

Of course, you’ll need to supervise your baby (you won’t want them to try and put the paint-covered ice-cubes into their mouth)! There are so many fun objects to paint with but supervision is really important.

3. Apple painting

Cut an apple or two in half and have your toddler paint the middle of the fruit. Once they’ve done this you can help them to make apple-shaped prints on the page. The first step is to choose which colour they’d like to paint with, perhaps blue apples, yellow apples or even rainbow coloured? Asking your toddler to select colours helps them to establish preferences and even learn new words.

4. Leaf painting 

Leaf painting is a really fun activity for the autumntime. The first step is to go out into the garden and collect some beautiful leaves, big and small. Help your child to paint the leaves and make prints, if they prefer they can swirl the leaves around like a paintbrush. Sensory play is all about discovering new things and in this case, creating a masterpiece!

5. Blow painting

Squeeze a few circles of paint onto a canvas, once you’ve done this, help your toddler to blow air at the paint through a straw. By doing this you can make some beautiful shapes and have plenty of fun. There are so many ways to play with your toddler, whether it’s a treasure basket or messy play with shaving foam.

Looking after a toddler involves plenty of hard work, whether it’s feeding them, keeping them entertained, or purchasing baby supplies. If your little one needs some new things for the nursery, be sure to check out Foryourlittleone.