At times, gift giving can be hard. I have 5 nephews and 1 niece, so I’m always buying for birthdays or holidays. I’m also the type of parent/aunt that does not want to give toys all time. I rather gift an experience or something that encourages learning. When I saw the Paint Your Own Stepping Stone by MindWare I knew it was the perfect gift idea for a certain someone on my list. Not only does it help with motor skills and coordination it also brings out the creativity. And I can even throw a little science lesson in too.
The act of painting the stepping stone draws out the painters creativity. They are also learning new skills without even realizing it! Each kit comes with a stone and a set of paints. It’s up to you to decide what colors or patterns you want to create on the stone. Think of all the skills that takes! The painter needs to plan out what they want to do, what colors they want to use, where they want to use those colors and if they want to create any new colors with blending different paints together. Then when they are done painting, you bake the stone in your oven! This helps give the stone a weather resistant finish and teaches your child some science. The science is in learning how applying heat turns the paint into a weather resistant surface.
The Paint Your Own Stepping Stone is suggested for ages 8 and up but I think you could get go a smidge younger if the activity was supervised. You could even do this as a family project. Think of how much fun it would be to get a stone for each family member and have them paint it. Then you could install a little walking path in your yard!
There are a few different shapes for the Paint Your Own Stepping Stone. I have the round one pictured here but there is also a turtle and butterfly shape. You can find them all on Mindware.
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