When my eldest, who we call “littles” was about 18 months old, she contracted hand, foot, and mouth disease and that left us home-bound for a few weeks.  It was a cold and rainy time of year and I remember thinking “what in the WORLD can we do to stay busy?” I spent many hours searching Pinterest and we tried a LOT of sensory bins, crafts, baking, etc.  But, my very favorite activity from that time of life has become a family favorite and it still makes an appearance about once per month!!

With the world on lockdown, social distancing or quarantine, I thought it might be a good time to unveil my FAVORITE, cheap & easy activity to do with toddlers, preschoolers, or elementary children…SHOWER PAINTS!!  

You simply whip up a recipe of the “paints” and let your little ones get creative with painting the tub, shower or shower walls with this rinseable paint.

The best part?  You likely have the ingredients at home right now.  And, if you don’t, Amazon will deliver it to you in a few days.  Stock up now, I promise you won’t regret it.

SHOWER PAINTS RECIPE

Two Ingredients:

1 – plain/white shaving cream

2 – food coloring  

That’s it!!

For around $12, you’ll have 3 canisters of shaving cream and enough food coloring to last you HOURS and HOURS of fun.

Recommendations:

  1. Have your child either paint the walls in the shower or the tub before starting the water, so the paints will stay on the walls and so your children aren’t soaking their sensitive body parts in the cream for too long.
  2. Supervise younger children that might try to eat it.  It’s not safe to eat and will taste terrible.
  3. Make sure to rinse off your children and the tub/shower/grout after play.  One time I left pink “paint” on our grout overnight and it took some elbow grease to get the color off.
  4. Use paint brushes to apply the paints or fingers will do.

Have fun and let your kids be creative! You’ll be surprised how long they will stick with this activity!!

Sincerely,

Sarah Branion
Baby & Toddler Sleep Strategist

 

PS – Whenever you’re ready, I’d love to help you with you child’s sleep.  Start here with my FREE Baby Sleep Cheatsheet