How to Paint with an Infant
Since Sasha turned three months old, I have been looking for fun activities to do with her. Finding ways to stimulate her, work on developmentally appropriate skills, and introduce her to different educational activities that are fun is so important to me. Painting with my baby has always been high on my list since I saw the trend on TikTok.
Painting with my baby took a little preparation the first time.
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I needed a few supplies in order to do our project:
- Canvases
- jumbo ziplock bags
- acrylic paint (I used red, white, and blue since we did this on Fourth of July)
It was a super short supply list, making this project fairly inexpensive! Plus the paints I purchased, I’ll be able to use for years to come. I purchased a pack of 8×10 canvases and a set of acrylic paints. The canvases can really be any size, I just wanted to make sure they fit in a Ziplock bag. I already had jumbo ziplock bags, which are essential for this size canvas. The ziplock bag makes this a mess-free art project!
Mess-free painting with your baby is super simple!
Here are the steps for how to paint with an infant:
- Pick out your colors of paint. I reccomend starting with three or four.
- Place dots of your colors around your canvas. You can make them small and closer together or larger and farther apart, this is up to you.
- Carefully place the canvas with paint on it inside your ziplock bag and seal it shut.
- Let your baby use thier hands to smear the paint or kick the canvas to smear the paint. Sasha wasn’t quite using her hands yet so I let her kick it while in her bouncer!
- Once the paint is smeared, carefully remove the canvas from the ziplock and let it dry. I let mine dry about 24 hours just to be safe.
- Voila! Your baby has just created their first peice of artwork!
Remember to put the date and your child’s name on the back. You’ll love to look back on it one day!
As your child gets older, you can let them pick their own colors. You can also use painter’s tape to create a design on the canvas before placing the paint on the canvas and letting your baby smear it!
There are so many ways to get creative when painting with a young child.
Have you painted with your infant? Share any tips or tricks with me in the comments or share a picture of their work! I love supporting young artists!
