Science at Home: Exploring color with baby-safe paint
I was single-momming last week while Stefan was on a work trip to Boston. As my 9-month-old has made clear to me, I’m the boring parent. Great for cuddles and stories and songs, not so great with adventuring. That’s Papa’s department.
I decided to make things interesting with a substantive science lesson on subtractive color mixing. Okay, maybe not. I whipped up some baby-safe paints and we got messy!
These were super easy to make. Just 3 ingredients:
- 1/4 c. flour
- 1/4 c. water
- food coloring (2-3 drops)
Amounts are for each color. I mixed the flour and water first with a fork to get them well-blended. Then I dropped in a little food coloring. You could also add pureed fruit to get some natural color and transform the paints into a tasty treat.
Now as you can imagine this kind of activity gets messy! I stripped Alex down and set him in the tub before pouring out some of each paint. He loved spreading the colors with his hands and sliding around in the goop. When he was done, I washed the remaining paint down the drain and we moved on instantly to bath time! Easy peasy!