Art Bags for Kids

I've seen this activity done a few different ways.  I'm not sure what to call it so I guess I'll call them art bags for lack of a better name.  I guess it's sort of like a homemade Magna Doodle.

Mags really enjoyed drawing and making designs, erasing them and making more designs.  It's a great boredom buster and you can make one with supplies you have around the house.

It's hard to see her drawings because the table is the same color as the art bag but it's there.  I promise.

Supplies:

• Gallon size Ziploc bag
• tape
• 1/4 c. pudding  **avoid chocolate flavor - read story below
• about 1 Tb. glitter
• Q-tips

Directions:

1.  Place pudding in bag along with glitter.
2. Mash bag to mix the pudding and glitter thoroughly.
3. Remove all air from bag and seal it up.  Use tape for additional seal {especially if your kids are younger and are tempted to open it and eat the pudding like Miss Maggie was}.
4. Use q-tips as writing utensil.
5. You can store in fridge when not using it.  It should last a long time especially since you won't be eating it.

Yay!  Easy as that!

Okay so I have to tell you a story.  This is a warning actually so if you ignore my warning and this happens to you I get to point and laugh at you and say "I told you so". 

Several years ago my friend Laura saw in a family magazine an idea to do finger painting with pudding.  That way the kids can paint but it's also safe to eat.  Well Laura wanted to do this with her daughter Emmeline who was maybe 2 at the time so she pulled out the chocolate pudding she had in her cupboard and they painted.  It was great!  They had so much fun!  Later Emmeline took a nap after a while Laura went in to check on her and creative little Emmeline discovered that there were "finger paints" in her diaper!  There were poop murals everywhere!!!!  She said the activity was fun but the chocolate pudding color apparently sent some mixed signals to the kiddo.  I sure hope Laura can laugh about it now.

Flash forward to last week when we made our art bags.  All I had was chocolate pudding in our cupboard.  I was reminded of Laura's story, giggled in my head and used the chocolate pudding anyway.  I told myself that this would never happen to us because "Maggie is older than Emmeline was"  "Maggie is potty trained" "Maggie has never been interested in poop" "We're not finger painting exactly.  It's in a bag."  "She would never do that" etc. You can see, I had lots of reasons to carry on with the chocolate pudding.  I made the bag and ran upstairs to grab a q-tip, not more than a minute later Maggie is standing next to me showing me her dirty hands.  She says, "Uh oh.  Dirty."  I realize that I should have sealed the bag better and she must have opened it up.  Upon closer inspection I discover that it was poop!!!  She had an accident in her pull-up and decided to check it out.  Luckily she realized her mistake right away and there were no murals, but still -  Yuck!

I couldn't believe it.  I was warned.  Why didn't I listen?

Laura, this is where you get to point and laugh at me and say, "I told you so."

So the moral of the story is do this activity.  It's a lot of fun. 

But whatever you do don't use chocolate.