Paint My Porch - Sidewalk Chalk Paint

Something I saw on Pinterest about a year or more ago was Sidewalk Chalk Paint. I wish I could find the original poster to share with you and give credit where it is due, but the recipe is probably on other blogs and it's simple enough I'm not sure it's unique to the site I pulled it from.

 Whenever I'm feeling like I'm out of ideas for entertaining my extremely active 2 1/2 year old I pull this favorite out. Discovering little, easy things to do like this always make me feel better about my parenting. I often get in a rut and am not sure what to do once my toddler's colored, read a stack of books, played with Play-Doh, and played with every toy in his box. Letting him get outside and paint on our porch is easy and it also let's him get creative and helps me avoid plopping him in front of a show on Netflix.

I'm obsessed with this picture.

The recipe:

Sidewalk Chalk Paint

• 1 part corn starch
• 1 part water
• Food coloring

1. Pull out a cupcake pan (lately I've been preferring my mini cupcake pan so I can mix up variations of a color i.e. lime green, forest green, teal, and plain green). 
2. Fill each pan a little less than 1/2 way with water.
3. Drop the desired food coloring into each pan and stir to combine.
4. Finally add cornstarch (equal amounts as you have water) and stir to combine.

I add the color first because I feel like it combines better that way.

The original poster recommended foam brushes for applying the paint to the cement. I found that the foam paintbrushes just fall apart when brushed against the rough pavement and so we use the wide bristled brush from a pack that I bought at Walmart as a freshman in college (similar here). 

Simply set the cupcake tin down and let your kiddo go crazy!

In the video I was having him use spoons and forks...get creative ;)

My oldest used to have all the colors mixed within minutes, but now he's much more purposeful about his painting and doesn't usually mix the colors! The great part about that is, we just let the pan sit outside and dry out when we're not using it and then JUST ADD WATER the next time we want to paint. Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy!

I haven't had any trouble getting this to wash off. I usually just let the rain do it's job, but you can grab a hose and rinse it off too.

Here's our oldest playing with the Sidewalk Chalk Paint with his buddies last summer.

This is something that I've done several times with great success and I highly recommend it! Discovering that I can be an active and involved parent is the best feeling!