Outdoor Toy Paint: A Summer Activity

Outdoor toy paint is the most amazing summer activity – you’ve got to try this!

Quick. Easy. And basically free. This is the stuff summer activity dreams are made of. Set up this outdoor toy paint for your kids – trust me on this.

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It’s as easy as it looks: just let the kids paint the outdoor toys.

My kids LOVE this old Step2 Treehouse Lookout

and it’s just been one of those backyard staples since 2014.

But this summer (2020), I decide to let them start painting their beloved playhouse…

Don’t worry, I’m not a saint or some overly ambitious mom.

This all washes off.

RELATED: What are the best outdoor toys for kids? I’m so glad you asked.

Outdoor toy paint does look pretty wild, huh?

This is the kind of activity or adventure that I LOVE doing with my kids.

It looks so bold, so unexpected. It looks like I’m the “cool Mom.”

I look wild and free and amazing…

But really, it’s just washable paint on plastic which means there is exactly ZERO concern here for my toy.

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We love painting toys – that’s nothing new for us – but doing it on such a large scale. That was the WOW moment for my kids (and also they’re “I can’t believe mom said yes!” moment too).

Here’s a list of materials I used in this summer activity:

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Materials:

• Washable paint (this stuff is GREAT)
• Paint brushes
• Muffin tin (a cheap muffin tin makes for a PERFECT outdoor palette)

Not many supplies huh???!!

That’s the thing about kids activities. We get it in our heads that they need to be complicated and fancy and over blown.

But really? Just a muffin tin of paint and a six year old toy to paint.

And boom – that was our entire morning.

Are my kids learning in this activity?

Why of course they are!! Because learning is play and play is learning and this is some amazing play unfolding.

In this activity, my kids are working on their teamwork, cooperative work shills, communication, motor skills, creativity, and imaginations.

Remember, there’s so much more to learning that the “ABCs” and the “123s”. Real learning in early childhood is much more complex than that rote and basic stuff.

How do I clean up outdoor toy paint?

It was so easy – and actually a second activity in and of itself!

A few days later, we grabbed the hose and sprayed this down. Then we took scrubby kitchen brushes and gave it a good rub before hosing it down again.

The funny part: by the time paint clean up step was done, the little treehouse ended up CLEANER than it started.

Now that’s an activity win, if I’ve ever heard one.

Don’t miss out on this awesome summer activity!

The outdoor toy paint really was fantastic (we’ve actually done it 4 times this summer).

It doesn’t get old and the kids are always into it. Say yes, be spontaneous, let the kids paint the toys.

What will your kids use in outdoor toy paint?