Painting allowed in playroom?

Omgzombies · December 2012

My daughter is getting a small art desk for Christmas from her grandparents, which I think is a great idea, she loves drawing. My husband and I plan on finishing off the playroom in the basement this spring, and I'm wondering if that would be a good spot for it. Would you let your three year old have access to art supplies in their playroom where they may be playing unsupervised? Or do you do it only in the kitchen, family room under adult supervision? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

TiffanyBerry · December 2012

Depends on your kid.

I'd let my daughter paint, mostly unsupervised, but she's been doing it for a while and has demonstrated, for more than a year, she is "generally as trustworthy as a toddler can be" with paint. (Translation - she doesn't do anything bad, doesn't look like she's going to do anything bad, but you can't guarantee a thing with toddlers.)

A friend's child, I would absolutely not trust at without close adult supervision with paints. He hasn't had a lot of practice with paints supervised, so that's part of it, but his nature, his general personality, is different than my daughters, so he will probably be able to go without supervision at a much later date than my daughter in this particular area.

groovygrl · December 2012

My kids have access to crayons & an easel but not paint, that would be a disaster waiting to happen in my house, one of the containers would get opened & dumped everywhere no doubt...also our playroom is carpeted.. I keep the markers in a drawer in the kitchen so that they can actually reach in & get them but I generally know if they have them & I have them use them in the kitchen at the table or island, I don't let them take them around the house, etc.

We are finishing our basement this winter and I don't think I'll put the art stuff down there w/out me there probably until they're 4 or so.

megann831 · December 2012

DD has an easel with a chalk board and dry erase marks. She uses them pretty unsupervised, but the play room has two double doors that are open, so I always see what she's doing. We also have those foam puzzle piece letter things under the easel. If hers was an art desk, as long as there was something under it and I was watching her 70% of the time I'd let her paint, otherwise only the dinning room or outside.

mbgreenwalt · December 2012

DD only gets chalk unsupervised. All other art supplies are used with our supervision.

cpmich · December 2012

I would keep it somewhere else. Crayons or chalk are fine, but paint or scissors are definitely supervision only. I know someone would emerge with an interesting haircut sooner than later...