Ideal Bite

Is your kid the next Picasso?

Submitted by tmeronek on Tue, 08/26/2008 - 1:11am.

Daily Tip

The Bite:

Pablo-bly not, but you can still encourage your budding artiste to make masterpieces with nontoxic supplies like veggie-based paint...for art that screams like Munch but smells like Monet's garden.

The Benefits:

Less suffering for art. Many standard art supplies emit asthma-inducing chems; pick ones that don't contain ammonia, formaldehyde, or turpentine, especially since supplies can end up in kids' mouths.
Painting a greener planet. Up to 36 billion pounds of toxic acrylic polymer solvents, found in many traditional art supplies, are produced each year.
Inspiring mini-Mirós. Whether or not your kid's a natural, natural art supplies will get their creative juices flowing.

Personally Speaking:

It's too early to tell whether Heather's nephew Quinn will be the next Paul Klee, but she picked up a box of the Nuno veggie-based paint for him just in case.

Wanna Try:

Nuno Finger Paint - four colors of food-grade finger paint; for ages three and up ($25).
Stockmar Modeling Beeswax - great alternative to polymer clay, which contains PVC; six colors, for ages four and up ($15).
Paint A Poster Books - veggie-pigment paint-by-numbers series with dinosaurs, fairies, and sprites; for ages six and up ($5).
Prang Soybean Crayons - four-color box of soy (rather than petroleum) wax crayons; for ages four and up ($1).
EcoArt Works - eco art supplies for both kids and adults (prices vary).
Children's Health Environmental Coalition - explains how to read the tricky labels on the backs of art supplies containers.