The Bean Patch: DIY Liquid Watercolors

I've been wanting to buy a set of liquid watercolours for Bean for AGES now, but so far they've just been a bit beyond our budget. Then the other day as I was drifting off to sleep I had a light bulb moment! Why not just buy normal kids watercolour tubes and water them down??! Well, it worked (and I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner, but there we have it). At only $10 for a set of watercolor tubes, that's a HUGE price difference for basically the same product, and because you control the quantities it'll last much longer as well.

This exciting new discovery has opened up heaps of opportunities to do some activities that I've had on my list forever! So I thought i'd tell you about the first couple of ways we've used liquid watercolours this week...

First we tried some colour mixing and painting with pipettes, we did primary colours first and that was great to teach how to make colours (pictured is the second round we did using non-primaries at Bean's request).

The great thing about the watercolour tubes is that a little paint goes a VERY long way when it's watered down, you just need a bean sized amount for a whole cup of vibrant liquid colour.

Using the pipettes for collecting squeezing and mixing is great for co-ordination and building hand strength, and colour mixing for developing visual skills and colour recognition...and let's face it - toddlers LOVE squirting liquids of any kind!

The end result gives a lovely splattered effect.

The second activity is one for bath time and all you need is a spray bottle full of the liquid watercolour (multiple bottles with different colours if desired!) and a bubble bath. Let the squirting begin! :-)