Finger paints

I'm not a fan of cleaning up kid messes. I do it all the time, so I try to keep the messy activities to a minimum. This activity of edible finger paints was a suggestion from my sister who has kids. After all my concern about the clean up, it turned out not as messy as I anticipated.

All I did was make up some instant pudding. It was 48 cents a box at Walmart.

For the first trial run, I just used chocolate. But I also bought pistachio for a green color and vanilla for a white color. I put it in muffin tins so it would less like food and more like paint.

I put a flat sheet down in my kitchen since my dining room is carpeted. I gave my daughter a cookie sheet as her canvas.

After awhile I would wash the cookie sheet off for her so she could start over with her picture. I also gave her a spoon to work with. She really liked that. I thought she would be more excited about eating the pudding than she was. Maybe next time when she is more comfortable with the activity she will move on to eating the "paint."

I was afraid she would throw the pudding across the kitchen but she did pretty well keeping it on the cookie sheet and flat sheet. When she was done, I picked up the muffin tin and cookie sheet and put them in the sink. The flat sheet went straight into the wash and she went into the bathtub. It was a much easier clean up than the water activities.

Next time we will try different kinds of pudding for different colors of paint.