By Jill McDonough
Are you nervous about your kids doing art at home? Do you think it will be super messy? Well, don’t worry any longer. You will definitely want to add painting to your homeschool after reading this article. As for supplies, you’ll definitely want to check out Discount School Supply.
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Discount School Supply has great supplies for homeschools. If you have young kids or a large family, I would strongly recommend buying in bulk as you’ll be surprised how many art supplies you will use as a homeschooling family!
Specifically, I want to encourage you to add paint to your homeschool supplies. Paint? Isn’t paint super messy? Can’t I wait until they take art in college?
Let’s look at the many benefits of having painting be a part of your homeschool. Painting:
- Helps children communicate their emotions or feelings with paint. They can express themselves without using words.
- Helps children acquire hand-eye coordination. While they try to paint what that they see, they have to make their hand movement on par with their vision.
- Stimulates a child’s brain.
- Helps children develop mobility skills such as the fine pincer grip.
- Aids children in acquiring skills on how to focus on trivial details; painting on a canvas or a piece of paper or using brushes vs. sponges requires varied painting skills.
- Teaches children about color mixtures.
- Helps children learn size, shapes, patterns and designs.
- Allows children to develop their decision-making skills. They need to plan ahead as they choose which color to use and what to paint.
- Is not screen time!
- Leads to exchanges in conversations, which is a way in for adults to listen and ask questions.
- Gives you precious, free art! (And yes, they may paint you as a potato-shaped mom. Just go with it…)
Alright, you’re convinced you should include painting in your homeschool, but you’re wondering, “What materials should I purchase?”
I would definitely recommend one of my favorite places for easy paint supply shopping – Discount School Supply! What will you need?
- A Paint Smock. You will not regret this purchase…ever.
2. Washable paint. When your kiddos paint off the paper…and they will…you won’t stress because this paint wipes right off with a wet paper towel…even if it has dried.
If you have little ones, I would suggest finger paints. Why? This thick, creamy finger paint has an opaque consistency that resists splashing. It is also:
- Latex free
- Dairy & Casein free
- Egg free
- Gluten free
- Peanut & Tree Nut free
- Soy free
3. Paper! I love white butcher paper. I pull out a long sheet and tape it to the table. This eliminates a lot of “painting off the page” with smaller 8.5 x 11 standard sized paper. I also move their chair after a while and voilà, they have fresh, clean new paper…which means more time for me to homeschool my other child.
Here’s the white butcher paper I like…
4. Paint brushes! Start with great chunky brushes! It’s so exciting for kids to see one quick brush stroke make such a drastic change to the paper.
Have fun watching your children explore their new found creativity in your homeschool!
