Homemade Paint with Water Pages

Are you familiar with those 'paint with water books'?  They have dried dots or lines of water color paints printed on an outlined drawing.  Children use either a paint brush or a cotton swab to wet the dried paint.  The water dissolves the paint and covers the entire area in bright water colors. 

For science co-op this past week, I needed a few of these pages to use in an experiment testing various solvents.  After traveling to five different stores, {yes, five!} I found none.  It was then that I decided I either needed to revamp the entire lesson plan or make the pages by myself. 

One of the books {Teaching Chemistry with Toys} that I am using for the class, had a suggestion to try water soluble markers for homemade paint with water pages.  I pulled out a few markers, a sheet of printer paper, and a cotton swab.  I dotted blue marker on the page, and swiped it with a wet cotton swab.  I was surprised by how well it worked! 

My sister telephoned while I was trying the markers suggestion.  As I explained the predicament, she laughed, and promptly informed me that she had about half a dozen paint with water books that I could come pick up that evening.  Having been to five different stores in search of the books, I wasn't quite as humored.  However, I was happy to pick up the books.

Though I didn't need to make homemade paint with water pages for the experiment, I did encourage the children to try it out after the experiment.  It was a hit!  My two youngest children who are in the science class had so much fun that when we got home, they began to make more paint with water pages.  Pictured above is one of the pages my youngest daughter made.