Edible Paint for Kids

Snack & art at the same time? Yes, please!

I’m absolutely thrilled to have Jamie here with us today, sharing her edible paint recipe that tastes as good as it looks!

 

Hi, I am Jamie from Hand Made Kids Art. I believe creative thinking is an essential skill to be encouraged in all kids. This is why I love to focus on art and play ideas to grow creative thinkers!

It does not take expensive materials or a lot of time to encourage creative thinking in your child. In fact, you can add a little fun and creative play during snack time to help your child develop their creative thinking skills.

Creative play is your child’s exploration of creating through child-led play. This means the activity is open-ended and there is not a right or wrong answer. Creative play helps your child develop self-confidence through learning how to express their feelings and emotions.

When you give your child time to explore and create, you are giving opportunities to self-discover and find new ways of thinking.

This sensory loaded activity will not only have your child exploring their creativity, but also learning through their sense of touch, taste, and sight. Read below for our whole tutorial.

{This post may contain affiliate links for your convenience.}

Materials:

• Flavored Gelatin (We used 6 flavors but you can keep it simple and start with 1 or 2 flavors)
• Yogurt
• Spoon (1 per color)
• Bowl (1 per color)
• Fruit
• Plastic Cutting Mat (optional)

Tutorial:

Step 1: Scoop two spoonfuls of yogurt into the bowl.

Step 2: Sprinkle in a spoonful of your choice of flavored gelatin. Add more gelatin for a darker color and stronger taste or less gelatin for a lighter color and less flavor. Stir the gelatin so it mixes in well with the yogurt.

Step 3. Pair your yogurt with a matching colored fruit.

I let my young creative thinkers help with the prep of this activity. Together we discussed what types of fruit would match the different colors.

Step 4: Create! Let your child explore and play with their fruit and yogurt.

At first, my six year old wanted to mix the different colors of yogurt together to see what would happen.

After mixing the different colored yogurts, he turned his yogurt mix into a pirate’s face with the addition of strawberries.

(see the left strawberry…that is the eye patch)

Which then led to the creation of a bicycle.

CLEAN UP TIP: We used a plastic cutting mat as our canvas so my young artists would scoop the yogurt and add the fruit on their mat to create their work of art.

While my six year old was busy creating, my four year old mostly ate and then ate some more. She would scoop the colored yogurt on her mat and then use her finger to draw in it and eat. But that is okay! She was exploring her sense of taste and touch.

As for the rest of the clean up….

This was my favorite part. No way was I going to waste all this delicious fruit. So we made a rainbow smoothie. We piled all the fruit and leftover yogurt into the blender.

We added milk, spinach (because we love green smoothies), 2 bananas (this helps make it creamy) and ice to the fruit/yogurt mix.

Blend it all together and we had a second delicious snack from the leftover fruit and yogurt.

I have to say even I was surprised how delicious the smoothie turned out!

Have the activity be open-ended and remember to let your child lead their own creative play. You can encourage your child by asking open-ended questions or making observations about what you see your child creating.

Allowing your child to “play with their food” provides new learning opportunities as they explore different ways to experiment and express their own creativity.

If you are looking for more ways to develop your child’s creative thinking sign up for Hand Made Kids Art’s weekly source of creative inspiration for more activities to raise creative kids.

---

Jamie is a certified Art Instructor and a mother of three. Her website, Hand Made Kids Art, focuses on quick, easy and inspiring art activities to grow creative kids. It doesn’t matter if you only have 5 minutes or 20 minutes, you can find time to create art with your children. You can follow along with her creative art adventures at Hand Made Kids Art, Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

---

Thanks for stopping by! You can connect with The Realistic Mama on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and by subscribing to our free email newsletter!

P.S. Are you looking for extra side income? I make full-time income blogging part-time—check out this easy step-by-step tutorial on how start a blog (no tech knowledge required).