Holiday activities for children - Painting with leaves, Rock painting and Painting with Earbuds

I had written a post few years back about Holiday activities for school children. Whatever activity I tried with my kid during the holiday time was mentioned in the post. Similarly for this summer holiday season, I have been trying out a few activities with my kids. In this post, I will be writing about a few painting ideas we did this summer.

Painting is a great way to keep the children engaged for a few hours. Albeit a bit messy at times especially with younger kids, painting encourages children to be creative and authentic. Painting using paper and paint brush is the usual way but I wanted to do something different so I can get their attention and make them feel enthusiastic about this activity. 

And how did we do it? We did painting in rocks, using leaves and using earbuds. The idea that we could paint in and using other medium was making the kids curious! Instead of using paper and paint brushes, you swap the paper with a rock and swap the brush with earbuds. All you are doing is varying the medium to do the painting! You could try this easily in your house as the items needed are definitely available with you. If you are doing this activity with small kids (less than 5 years old), please exercise supervision and do it along with them.

Things needed: 

Leaves - dry or green

Rocks, like pebbles

earbuds - 6 numbers

Paints - watercolour or poster colour paints

paint brushes

Any thick paper to withstand the paint

Newspapers or any sheets at the bottom to protect your floor.

Painting with Leaves:

Painting with leaves is similar to vegetable painting where we use a leaf to do the painting. You can use a single leaf variety or use different types of leaves to make the painting; getting different shapes and sizes will make the painting interesting. We used green leaves during the activity but if you could get dried leaves, that would be good. We used poster colours as the paint is a little thick and holds to the leaves better, making a good impression on paper.

You can use it just as an impression on the paper without any specific theme or encourage the kids to make an animal or a fish or anything using the leaf impression. Just give them the directions and let them explore on their own. You would be amazed at their creativity!

Rock Painting:

All you need is a rock! Get a good sized rock so that your kid can hold it well while painting. We had some pebbles near our house and we used them. The rough surface makes it interesting to paint. With different shapes and sizes, you can get creative and make them into various animals when painted. You could even write something on the rocks; they would make great decorative pieces!

We used poster colours so we can reuse the rocks by washing them with water. We did repaint the rocks with different colours so poster colours are great for this.

I painted a small fish in one of the rocks and it is in one of the pictures here. Write in the comments if you have spotted the fish and what colour it is!

Painting with Earbuds: 

Your earbud becomes your brush in this way of painting. Since there will be 2 cotton ends in the earbuds, you could practically use 2 colours in one earbud. This can take a little longer to paint but the kids will enjoy this.

Encourage your kids to paint during the holidays - be it in paper or any other medium like rocks or leaves! If you have any other creative ways to paint with kids, do share it in the comments below. Let's learn together!