5 Benefits Of Finger Painting For Kids

Most of us have enjoyed hours of painting with our fingers during our childhood. But little did we know then about the benefits of finger painting for kids. Children, especially toddlers love this fun activity of painting with their fingers and getting messy with colours. Don’t worry about the mess all you need are some paints, aprons, canvas or paper and some baby wipes to clean the mess! The point is to let your toddler explore this fun activity as the benefits of finger painting for kids are many. 

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What Is Finger Painting?

It’s a fun and simple activity that involves dipping tiny fingers in paint and then using those fingers to paint on canvas or a sheet of paper. You can even let your toddlers paint on a pot or other objects that you would like to recycle. 

Make sure you use non-toxic paints and be prepared as kids do not restrict themselves to painting only on the given area. Cover the table or the area with some old newspaper and just let their imagination run wild without worrying about the mess!

What Are The Benefits Of Finger Painting For Kids?

Counselling Psychologist and Expressive Arts Therapy Practitioner, Aakriti Khosla says, “Finger painting can be an excellent stress reliever. The experience of using fingers can be very uplifting emotionally and psychologically. It helps toddlers to build more attention and concentration. Since it’s highly engaging and involving, it helps them to improve their focus and manage daily routine activities well.”

Here are some of the other benefits of finger painting for kids

1. Stimulates Senses: Painting with their fingers is an excellent way to help kids stimulate their senses. Senses like sight, smell, feel/touch and taste as well if you give them edible paints to paint with! Finger painting involves all these major senses.

2. Develops Fine Motor Skills: Since it involves the muscles of the hand and fingers, finger painting is a fun way to help kids develop their fine motor skills. 

3. Helps Intellectual Development: When a child mixes different colours and learns how to create new colours, they use their imagination and that helps them to build their intellectual development. That’s not all, they even learn to recognise the different colours.

4. Improves Hand-Eye Coordination: Since finger painting involves some complex movements, it helps them develop better hand-eye coordination while they are having fun.

5. Builds Language and Communication Skills: When you talk to your children about the painting they have created; what they were thinking of while doing it, what their painting means, and what colours they have used, it helps them build their language skills. They also learn to express their feelings through painting.  

Besides that it’s easier for toddlers to paint with their fingers than with a crayon or brush, they also learn to express their feelings without words! Since the benefits of finger painting for kids are many why not try some of these fun finger painting ideas with your toddler?

Finger Painting Ideas

• Use Cardboard

Cut a piece of cardboard into different shapes like triangles, circles, squares etc. or the shape of any animals and let your toddler use his/her fingers to paint them.

• Use Old Toys

Give your child an old toy that is no longer needed like a toy car and let him/her paint the toy.

• Use Printed Templates

Let your toddler choose a template. Print it out and let your little one use their fingers to paint it.

• Use Textured Paints

You can give your child things like sand and glitters or even shaving foam to add to the finger paints. Watch them have fun with it!

• Try Stone Painting

This is always a big hit with toddlers. Let them collect some stones and ask them to paint on them. You can later use it as a paperweight too!

• Paint  T-shirts

Buy a white t-shirt for your child and him/her fingerpaint on it. Your toddler can use the t-shirt once the paints dry. 

Easy Homemade Edible Finger Paint Recipe

Here’s an edible finger paint recipe you can try at home and let your toddler or young child enjoy being creative.

What you will need: 

• Food colouring as per choice
• Salt   2 tsp 
• Flour 2 cups
• Hot water  2 cups
• Cold water 2 1/2 cups  

Method:

• Take a bowl and mix the salt and flour.
• Add the cold water to the mix.
• Make a smooth paste. 
• Add the hot water gradually and mix. 
• Divide the mixture into small bowls or cups.
• Let your toddler add the food colouring of his/her choice.

Pro Tip:

Want to encourage your toddler to finger paint? Try this:

• Take them paint shopping and let them choose the colours.
• Play music for them while they paint or even better sing a favourite song together as they paint.
• Give them different textures to add to the paint to make it more interesting.
• Paint with them.
• Keep extra paints, paper and baby wipes handy.
• Be patient.

Finger painting is a messy affair but it’s a fun activity with great benefits, so let them mess and have fun while they create their masterpieces! Don’t keep your toddler from enjoying this fun activity because of the fear of cleaning up the mess, BabyChakra Bamboo Wipes and BabyChakra Mosturizing Wash have you covered!

Cover image source: freepik.com