homemade paint brushes from natural materials

Yesterday was a boring afternoon. We had nothing planned and it was too hot and then too rainy to do much outside. Ethan wanted to paint but, after a couple of hours, found himself bored with his same everyday paint supplies. The rain had let up enough for us to go on a nature walk around the perimeter of our house. Carrying a bag with us, Ethan carefully selected items from the yard that we could use to create our own paintbrushes. Rocks, sticks and mulch were great for the base of the brush and after much consideration, Ethan decided some fallen leaves and some grass would make great bristles. After about ten minutes we found everything we needed and headed back inside, just in time for the rain to start falling again. The collecting of materials was a great way to get some fresh air and explore our backyard a little bit. It's always neat to see what fun things we can find that we overlook on a regular basis. Inside, we used pipecleaners to attach the bristles to the bases of the brushes.

Ethan couldn't wait to get started!