Quite understandably, the prospect of painting at home with young children fills some house proud parents with dread. But as long as you take a few precautionary measures to protect your surroundings it can be great fun.

The big cover up
1) Get children to wear protective overalls or an old shirt to protect their clothes.
2) Spread a plastic sheet over the floor, or failing that loads of old newspapers.
3) Give each child a sturdy container of clean water and a cloth to wipe their brushes.
4) Use paints that are washable - but even so still be particularly careful with colours like black or purple, which always seem difficult to remove.
5) If painting with very young children - supervise at all times!

Artists' materials

Paints

Although the sort of paint that comes in blocks of colour might seem like the best option, it is in fact far less versatile than the powdered variety that you can mix up yourself. Children also find it difficult to keep the colours separate and clean when using blocks of paint, and you'll probably find that all the colours end up looking a muddy brown! For this reason if you do opt for this sort of paint then it is best to go for paints in very big blocks of colour rather than the type where each block is about the size of a two pence piece.

The advantages of powdered paint are:
a) There is a much wider range of colours available (you can even get silver and gold) and they seem much brighter.
b) You can alter the consistency of the paint. For example it can be made very thick for finger painting and handprints or thinned for colour washes. Alternatively, you can add washing up liquid to do bubble painting.

Ready mixed poster paints are another option, but can be rather expensive.

Brushes

The best brushes to use are the traditional chunky artists' brushes made of hogs' hair. You'll find that the spindly nylon brushes that are widely available are too thin and the bristles soon splay out making them completely useless.

Paper

Unless you've got money to burn, there's no point in buying special paper for your

SOME ACTIVITIES TO TRY

Potato printing

1) Wash a potato and cut it in half.
2) Draw a simple shape like a square or a triangle on the flat side with a pen. You could also use pastry cutters to get a more complicated outline.
3) Cut away the potato surrounding the shape.
4) Put some quite thick paint in saucers and then dip the potato shape in it, or use a brush to coat the surface.
5) Press the potato shape firmly on to some paper to create patterns.

Bubble painting

1) Mix some powder paint with a little water in a small bowl or carton, and then add a couple of tablespoons of washing up liquid to it, and mix well.
2) Use a straw to blow bubbles into the mixture so that you end up with a mound of bubbles. (Make sure children blow and don't suck!)
3) Take a sheet of paper and place it gently on top of the bubbles so that the bubble pattern is transferred to the paper.
4) Repeat the process with bowls of different colours of paint and you'll get a very pretty marbled effect.

String painting

1) Place some different coloured paints in saucers.
2) Cut some string or wool into lengths of about six inches.
3) Dip the string into the paint and then press it on to the paper.
4) Encourage your child to get different effects by dragging the string across the paper or coiling the string into a circle or other shapes.