During the past week my 6 year and I decided to paint rocks collected during an earlier beach visit. It was also a good opportunity to learn more about shapes as that was the ongoing learning theme in school. From a young age, children observe and learn to recognise various shapes. This helps in their cognitive development and lays a strong foundation for learning in a variety of areas. Breaking down everyday objects into shapes makes the visualization process simpler and enables one to apply the same on paper.
Since the trend of rock painting is catching up worldwide especially the technique of dot mandala, we decided to try our hand at it too. The dots look mesmerizing and who wouldn’t want to create them! Rock painting can be a great fun activity for your little kids. You can paint together with your kids too. For this activity we picked up one circular rock and 2 oval shaped rocks.
Mandala dot painting (Refer Above Image, Source: Pinterest) can be tough and also daunting for kids (especially those with limited patience). So while I made a very simple and a basic mandala, I let my son to either copy me or to come up with his own random design of dots. We used Q tip, ear buds and the back of brushes as dotting tools.
First, we painted a solid black circle on the rock so that the design stands out. You could paint any other colour or leave it unpainted. You can start creating your patterns after this layer is completely dry.
I made a very simple pattern ( I have kept this simple so that kids can replicate the pattern) while my son decided to paint random dots. We used tempera paints for this but they will not be waterproof. The best medium would be acrylic.
Leave it to air dry and your pretty rocks are ready!
We also tried some nature painting by painting a simple honey bee and a few random honey combs for effect. In this case, the honeybee was also drawn by breaking down shapes. You can draw the body with a large oval and make 2 small oval wings on them. The honeycomb was drawn using hexagons. This was an interesting activity, we learnt the properties of a hexagon and also learnt to draw them! Since its a free hand drawing, some of the hexagons are not so accurate!
You can try out other simple insects like ladybird, butterfly or spider!
Do send in images or videos of what you create with your kids using shapes. 🙂
About the author:
Suchitra is a full time mom to a naughty little 6 year old boy. After having worked for a decade in the IT industry, she now devotes her free time to her childhood passion of art and crafts. She loves reading and doing crafts with her son. She also enjoys cooking,