How to Be Awesome at Sensory Play: Mashed Potato Paint

As Cricket has become more comfortable with different textures and sensory experiences, I've been trying some new things.  Last week I talked about how much she loved playing with the dry mashed potato flakes.  I saved them when she was finished, and that night, I tried making mashed potato paint!

All you do is add water to the potato flakes until they are whatever consistency you want.  If you want them to be able to paint with a brush, you would use more water than I did.  I wanted these to be more like finger paints.  Since we did this on July 5th, I was still in a patriotic mood, so I decided to dye them red, white, and blue.  Just a few drops of food coloring for the red and blue was all I needed.  

Of course, we did this in the tub since it was messy.  She did not dive in as quickly as she did with the dry flakes.

As a matter of fact, she was pretty skeptical of the whole thing.  Brian and I thought it was fun though.  It's a fun texture.

She did finally discover that she liked putting her feet into it.

She didn't mind when we put some on her, but she didn't do it voluntarily. 

You see that face?  That is the face of strained tolerance.

I think she was entertained watching us play with it more than anything.

Clean up was a breeze.  We just put as much of it as we could back in the bowls and then rinsed the rest off.  I think she will enjoy this one more when she is older, but it was at least another exposure to different sensory textures, smells, and colors, so I call it a win!