Inexpensive Artistic Fun for Your Child This Summer with Crayola

Summertime is fun time for children. When the weather finally warms up after the long cold winter its time to flock outside and soak up the sunshine. During this warm respite its always fun to offer your children a variety of activities to keep them amused and also enrich their abilities. One of the best ways to do this is to help your child learn about art and reach inside themselves for their own unique style of talent. Many parents restrict their children in this area simply because they find paint, markers, and pens to be too messy for indoor fun. But outside your child can be as messy as he or she wants to be and the parent can rest assured there will be an easy clean up.

Crayola makes so many wonderful products but in the summertime fun department they have outdone themselves. One of the best products is their washable Crayola Sidewalk Paint. Toys R Us sells large sixteen ounce bottles of this paint in three packs exclusively. You can order it on line from their on line website at www.toysrus.com . It retails for $9.95. The paint comes in red, blue, and yellow. You can combine the colors to also make other colors. The imagination potential is limitless. The paint is thick and just a little bit goes a long ways. Your child can enjoy it with simply their fingers or you can add to the fun with brushes and sponges. It takes a little while to dry and during this time the paint is quite slippery so be careful to watch your children on the wet sidewalk. Once dry it retains its wonderful color and lasts until you simply hose it off with nothing but pure water. My children have even used various surfaces for the paint such as the doors and picnic tables. None of these have offered difficulty when it comes to clean up. And all you need is simply water to clean up your children. The paint easily washes away from skin and clothing.

There is an airbrush that they market to be used with their paints but I have found it to be wasteful with loads of paint and not much artist output. It certainly does not create an airbrush effect. It retails for around $8.00. The children had fun with it but I expected more from the toy then it seemed to offer.

I have purchased both Crayola sidewalk chalk and less expensive knockoff brands which seem to not be as bright or consistent as the Crayola brand. It is well worth the extra buck to buy the name brand. I cannot recommend this chalk high enough. It is inexpensive at only $4.99 for an entire bucket of 52 pieces of chalk. It does not break easily. It survives virtually anything. When left in the rain or by the sprinkler it does not turn into a puddle of goo. Instead it retains its shape. In fact, my children enjoy getting the chalk wet in order to make a darker color from it. It is also easier to write with when wet. It does not demand much pressure to make a wonderful mark. It is washable with no problem and creates no mess.

Recently Crayola has released what they call a 3D chalk set. I must admit that it really does appear to have a three dimensional look when you use the small plastic glasses that come with the product. My children enjoy playing with it but the old fashioned chalk still seems to hold the most appeal for them. The 3D chalk sets retail for around $9.99. Most of them come with stencils that have a variety of themes such as jungle safari and sea life.

I also like to let my children play with Crayola's washable markers outside. They can color in books or even on their picnic table or decorate their tricycles and bikes with a variety of designs which easily wash off. These are a cheap way to just let your child have fun decorating whatever they feel needs a bit of non permanent color design. Retail for washable markers is a very cheap $4.99.

Nice outdoor weather is truly a great way to promote and encourage your child's creative side without the mess. So let them have fun and pretend they are artists for the day.