Painting Toy Cars: Easy Toddler Entertainment

A toddler's fascination with toy vehicles can provide endless hours of screen-free entertainment. As parents, we don't need to be precious about our children's toys. Once we let go of the fantasy that toys should stay in pristine condition, our kids will open our eyes with their inventive ways to play, which is how this painting toy cars acitivity began!

Toddler painting toy bus with orange paint at table covered in paper

How the Idea Came to Be

I noticed that every single time we bring out the paints and brushes for art time, my toddler requests his toy vehicles. One day I thought, "Why not? What's wrong with letting him smear paint all over them?"

We always used washable paint so even if he changed his mind, he could always give his toy cars a bubble bath, which is his favorite toddler indoor activity, anyway!

Also, look at his bucket of toy vehicles. Don't they look like they could use a paint job?

Pile of battered toy vehicles in a plastic bucket

Painting Toy Cars Activity

You'll be glad to know, this is a very easy toddler activity to set up. Feel free to head outdoors to paint cars on a lovely day, but we stayed inside.

Materials

Paper
Paint, preferably washable paint
Toy vehicles of all sorts
Paint brushes
Paper plate

Instructions

Cover your work surface with a piece of paper from a giant paper roll (one of our must-have art supplies). We used extra large binder clips to secure the paper to our dining table.

Optional: Instead of covering the table in paper, you could use a washable mat, but I wanted to give my child the option of creating art on the paper, if the spirit moved him.

Squeeze out several colors of paint onto a paper or plastic plate. Alternatively, use only one color. There is great value in single color art projects.