100 (Attempted) Ways to Entertain a Young Toddler, Day 80: Paint with Cars

A couple weeks ago, I was brainstorming for new project ideas to entertain Oliver. As I was going through is box of little toys, I thought I had a unique idea: why not paint using his toy cars?  Later, I was browsing my cousin's blog site and saw that she'd posted this activity months ago. I get the feeling I saw it, forgot it, and then thought I came up with the idea myself!

Why not still give it a try? I grabbed a bottle of non-toxic black paint and squeezed some into a shallow bowl.  I taped some sheets of paper down onto the table and then showed Oliver how to run his cars through the paint and then onto the paper.  He loved seeing it transfer on the paper, and he started sticking his hands in the tracks and smearing it around with his fingers!  I think it's fair to say he had a good time.

Photos of our painting activity:

To be perfectly frank, the project was a lot messier than I expected.  Although Oliver had fun, the activity didn't last all that long, and clean up took at least as long as the actual painting did.  Paint got stuck up in the axles of the cars, there was splatter on Oliver's arms, and some got into the crevices of our chairs.  It was fun, but I couldn't help but wish we'd just colored with crayons or something instead!  I guess it was neat and worth checking out this activity, but I don't think we'll be doing it again--at least not any time soon!  I give this "Paint with Cars" activity a C.