Look, I like to think I’m a fun Mum. The set-up-a-Tuff-Tray-of-messy-play kinda Mum. The spends-far-too-long-cutting-shapes-out-of-fruit-for-a-picnic kinda Mum – and I love getting creative with the kids. But there is something about the absolute faff of getting out the paints that fills me with dread. I always squeeze too much into the pallet, water always gets spilt, the paper is so overloaded with a brown paint sludge it starts to fall apart and it takes me longer to clean up than they played! I’m just not about it. But I’m also not in the business of depriving my children of fun and creativity.
Enter Paint Pop Paint Sticks.
With the mechanism of a glue stick, these chunky little tubes are perfect for little hands to start mark-making, with none of the mess. They dry in the space of a minute or so and they glide on so satisfyingly. Because of how portable and clean they are, we often take them with us when we go out to eat or somewhere that we need to wait for ages. It keeps us all occupied.
I love that they can be used on a load of different surfaces including paper, card, canvas, wood and even glass. I’m planning on using them on our French doors (sorry Steven!) to do some writing practise with Little Roo – hoping that the novelty of drawing on the windows will make him want to do it.
We were lucky enough to find the Paint Pop Giant Storage Tube (RRP £19.99) in Smyths Toys, which contains 30 paint sticks 12 Classic, 12 Metallic & 6 Neon colours, and a handy storage tube. I think these would be such a great Christmas gift, or something to put away in the Birthday Present box for that kid’s birthday who your child doesn’t seem to know anything about. Who doesn’t love a bit of doodling?!
Ruben (3.5 years) said “I like that we get to paint with them and all the different colours. My favourite colour is purple today. I like to do lots of ‘X’s”
He’s right. He wrote a letter to “Farmer” Christmas (no idea…) just covered in kisses in brown paint. I think he’s trying to butter up the big guy before Christmas eve – that’s my boy. But since getting the paint sticks a few days ago, they’ve been out every day. It doesn’t have to be a huge faff like it would be to get the normal paints out, so it’s okay if he wants to create a quick rainbow before bed and I like being the Mum who gets to say “yes”.
I also love that they wipe off the (brand new beautiful) table!
I basically want to paint on everything now, so let me know in the comments if you have any ideas of fun things we can do with the paint sticks, or let me know if you’ve ever tried paint sticks. They are revolutionary!