One of my hopes when I was pregnant was that my kids would enjoy being creative and using art and craft supplies. As I learned more about child development, I became more excited about the benefits that art activities would bring to our family. I knew a bit about the social-emotional benefits of self expression and working through emotions through art. I also learned about how art activities can support fine motor skills like whole-hand grasping, using a finger-pinch, and the gross motor skills of moving limbs to create shapes, swipes, dots, and so on.
To my dismay, and as many things go in parenting, my first kid wasn’t super interested in making art at first. I was thrilled that my second kid loves it! One of the materials we all- even my older kid- love to use are Ooly’s Chunkies paint sticks. They are about an inch wide, so holding them is easy for even young artists, and the twist feature at the bottom is easy for kids to use alone but not loose enough that they slip back into the base.
They write so smoothly on all kinds of materials- we have tried paper, cardboard, and fabric! There is no water required and they don’t smudge! These are the set of 6 classic colors and they sell for $6.50. There are also metallics, sets of 12, variety packs, and neon (adding to cart now!) varieties to choose from.
This is not an ad or a sponsored post. We absolutely love these products (and all the products I recommend), and the link above goes directly to the Ooly site. You can also get these from Target and other major retailers.