Finger Painting

Finger painting allows the child to explore the texture of paint with a sense of messy play, to work within boundaries of the page and to gain a sense of achievement and pride in their finished product. It can be messy but hands can be washed and it’s worth it!

Setting yourself up so that the experience remains within what you are comfortable with is important. So now that you have decided to give it a go, here are a few points that may help.

All play is an opportunity for parent-child quality time, building healthy parent-child relationships and practicing positive parenting tips and effective parenting strategies.

Resources

-A set of non-toxic paints

-large sheets of paper

-appropriate floor/table space

-Surface covering 

-protective clothing as necessary. 

-Having an area nearby for washing hands is convenient

-some paper towel for wiping.

Together decide where to sit or stand as you paint and place any necessary surface covering and your sheets of paper in the space. 

Decide whether you will dip fingers in the paint or if you will place amounts of paint on your child’s and your hands and fingers to start.

Take time to draw your child’s attention to the texture of the paint, name how it feels, name the colours and how it might look when you add other colours. Take your child’s lead here to experiment with the paints here in their own way.

Decide between you whether you will make a picture together or individual pictures. 

When ready your child can place their fingers or hands on the paper to make marks and patterns. You can either lead or follow on the same paper or if your child is confident enough, you may wish to just observe them making their own picture without offering direct support.

How the end product looks to you is of no importance here. 

Your time together, the shared experience and the process for the child of creating something all their own is what matters most. Focus on the connection in the play between you and your child and delight in how they react to the paint, the colours, how it shows up on the page for them. Think about what it feels like for your child to be there in that moment with you.

When the marks on the page don’t turn out the way they wanted, give it a moment and allow them to process that for themselves. Don’t rush in with hand wipes and fresh paper to start over. Also don’t tell them it’s fabulous and deny how they feel. Sit in it with them, perhaps wonder about how they had hoped it would turn out, wonder about what happened and acknowledge how they feel about it. Sow the seed of the possibility that it was meant to turn out this way and why? 

Things in life don’t always go the way we want them to and when that happens in play, it’s the perfect opportunity for experiencing that in a safe way, for adults to role model naming the big feelings and allowing those feelings to have their place, co-regulate with the child acknowledging how it feels for them and then make a plan to move on.

The clean up can be fun too so sharing the jobs and chatting about perhaps artists,  can add a new element to the experience, for example “I wonder if Picasso started painting this way?” “How would you sing a rainbow?” 

Keeping it playful and nurturing is key…play is about fun, no judgment, expectations or shoulds.

Further play

Finger painting can be expanded into chats afterwards about what you see in the pictures created, stories to tell about them, where to display or store the painting and why and what you would do the same or differently next time.