We’ve had some severe rain the past few days – so much so that the school I work at was closed early yesterday and out completely today for flooding in the county. When I’m off work and Little Man is home, I keep him home with me to capture any additional time with him that I can.
It’s so soggy outside today that there’s no way that we could play on the swing set or chalk. So I thought we could paint instead!
My toddler loves to paint – and lately, he’s been really interested in his children’s Bible. We are regular church attendees (I’m actually on staff at my church as Director of Youth & Young Adult Ministries), and when he’s with me for the weekend, he always goes and he attends children’s Sunday school, too. He is great at praying before dinner and before bed, and he remembers a lot. So his new interest in his children’s Bible isn’t surprising to me, but it sure does make me proud!
After we read a story, I try to be really intentional about having him share what he remembers and adding additional questions to help him connect with the story. For example, when we read about creation, I asked him how many days it took God to create the world – I repeated that question at random times until he could tell me, “6 days and on the 7th day, God took a nap.” Close enough! For Adam and Eve, he can tell you that Adam was the name of the first boy and Eve was the name of the first girl; he remembers that they were tricked by a snake, and they were tricked into eating the fruit of good and evil, which is exactly how his children’s Bible phrases it.
So we recently read about Noah’s ark. He can tell me that Noah built an ark, which is a boat, and that God told him to bring 2 of each kind of animal. What didn’t stick well with him at first was the rainbow.
Today, I thought that we could talk about what comes after the rain – since we’re living a mini version of it! So I shared what a rainbow is, and why God put a rainbow in the sky when Noah left the ark with all those animals. And we painted a rainbow… with Q-Tips!
Here’s what we used:
- A black sharpie
- White paper
- Q-Tips
- Washable paint
- A paper plate
I did a rainbow piece myself first so he could observe before I let him loose with paint. I find he does well watching to learn, then receiving instructions as a reminder when he does it himself. I’ll show you my process first, then his project.
I started by drawing a quick, three-banded rainbow on paper with the Sharpie. (No, my three-year-old does NOT get Sharpies – haha.) I set up my paper plate with the three colors I wanted to use, as well as one clean Q-Tip per color.
Then, I dipped a clean Q-Tip into one color of paint and filled in the first row of my rainbow with dots. I didn’t fill in completely because I like the feel of the polka-dot look.
Then I repeated this process for all three bands before coming up with my final piece of Q-Tip artwork!
When it was his turn, AJ selected his own three colors – red, yellow, and blue. Not traditionally side by side for a rainbow, but he’s three, and I’m thankful he knows his colors and has a steady hand for this activity, so we’re not fighting the color wheel battle today.
Overall, he did a great job of staying in the lines and getting through the process! We talked a lot about Noah while he painted, and he seemed to really enjoy it.
In fact, at the end, he told me he wanted to paint something else. Here’s a strawberry I doodled really quickly and let him paint – so this doesn’t have to be a faith-based activity if you don’t want it to – it can be for anything seasonal or that’s on-topic for school or at-home discussions you might be having with your kiddos.
What do you think of our quick Q-Tip art project? What kind of rainy-day activities do you do with your children? Comment below – I’d love to hear from you!
Kate with a Twang 
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