Paint

Paint is a wonderful medium to use with children. There are so many activities you can do involving paint that range from extremely clean to extremely messy. One of my favorites is car painting. Here's how you do it:

1. Put your kid in some clothes that can get messy.
2. Over the clothes put on a paint smock or an old adult shirt that you don't care about.
3. Put newspaper over the surface you're going to do the painting on.
4. Get some small toy cars-(hot wheels, etc.) and paper to paint on.
5. Pour some dish soap into a paper plate. On top of the dish soap pour on some tempera paint. Don't make the mixture too deep, about 1/8 inch is fine. Mix it together with a plastic spoon, throw the spoon away.
6. Let your preschooler dip the wheels of the car in the paint and roll the car over the paper. It'll make a cool design.

If you're really ambitious, get 2 or 3 plates of paint going. This is a fairly messy activity so it's best not to do it over a beloved carpet. With the dish soap added to the paint, most of it should come out of clothes, etc. It's no guaranteed though so make sure you use 'paint clothes' and newspaper. It'll cut down on the stress of cleaning up.