Psst… come here. I’ll tell you a secret. I often write simply for personal motivation. I’ll tell you what I mean. When I first got married, I was a terrible cook. Really awful, like “just throw the pan away” awful. I wanted to become better, but I wasn’t excited about the process. So, I created a cooking blog. I figured the process of journaling my culinary adventures would make learning to cook more enjoyable. It worked! I now have plenty of confidence in the kitchen, and it’s fun to have an online journal of all my experiments. I continue to try new recipes, though I don’t update the cooking blog very much anymore.
It’s in the spirit of my cooking blog and journaling my journey that I’m starting a new series on this blog called “Art School at Home/Church.” I really want to teach my sons (and when she’s old enough, my daughter) how to express themselves through art. The fact that there’s no formal art education in our public school makes me more determined to do it. In addition to being a great motivator for me to follow through, I’m hoping the resources and projects I share will be useful to some of you.
Arts vs. Crafts
Before I get to the actual project, a word on the difference between “art” and “crafts” that will guide this series. I think the distinction between the two is key. Craft projects are mostly about creating a replica of what someone else has shown you. “Take these google eyes and glue them here, then glue on two circles there, then bend the pipe cleaners like this and attach them.” Craft projects are great and they help develop all kinds of skills: following directions, fine motor, using tools, and more. My children receive a lot of instruction in craft projects at school and church, and we have a wall full of adorable projects to prove it! What I’m more interested in teaching them is art instruction and opportunities. (As well as some knowledge about famous artists and their works). Whereas crafts approach the experience with a very specific end “product” in mind, art is more about providing tools and technique and letting the artist create what he or she would like to create. When I surveyed the masses via Facebook for Resources about this, someone recommended the book The Artful Parent. I got it from the library and gobbled it up in a day and a half. It’s currently on my “wish list” because all of the projects look amazing. I highly recommend it.
Making the Spray Chalk
I’ve done plenty of projects with my boys in the past, but since I’m starting this journey of “art class at home,” I wanted to make sure that the first few activities were super fun for them so that they’ll begin to associate “art time with mom” as something fun to look forward to rather than a drag. I knew they’d love this activity, and it was such a hit. My first idea was to buy this sidewalk paint. It has great reviews and looks wonderful, but the price seemed a little steep for something like this, and after scouring the all mighty Pinterest, it seemed like the spray chalk version would be just as good (or better) with the option of allowing us to make it ourselves.
The recipe I found was:
- One cup of hot water
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 1 Tablespoon baking soda
- Plenty of food coloring. We used this neon food coloring with excellent results.
I got the spray bottles at the dollar store and I’m sure we’ll find other projects to use those for (or maybe we’ll do this chalk one again!) It was a fun bonus that the handles were in the same colors of the food coloring we had at home. Here’s how we made the chalk:
- Dump the cornstarch and baking soda in to a Ball jar and add the hot water + food coloring
- Screw the lid on tightly and shake until the powder is dissolved
- Pour into spray bottle
So easy! We repeated the process three times with the three colors and headed outside to see how it worked. The recipe could be easily doubled our tripled (as you see from the photo, there was more than enough space in the spray bottle.) Contents need to be shaken again after awhile as the water and powder separates (a lot like a salad dressing!). We used the entire recipe up in the one afternoon, so I don’t know how this would hold up over time. If you try it, leave a note in the comments!
The results were great. For the blue, the color didn’t show up much when it was wet, but then when it dried we could see the splatters:
The pink and green were more vibrant, even when wet:
Of course, part of the fun was spraying the playscape outside as well as creating an artful tree!
Overall, I was thrilled with this activity, and the boys were too. Someone commented that this would be a great VBS activity. Yes, it would! How fun to have children spray paint the church parking lot or sidewalk!
Thanks for joining me on this adventure. Look for more activities every couple of weeks or so (we’ll be having “art class at home” every week, but I don’t plan to document each adventure). You can also follow some of the projects I’ve curated on this Pinterest board.