Both B1 and B2 love to paint. It's messy, it's chaotic and apparently I am slightly mad for allowing them to paint in the house (which is a comment I always find odd) but it is so much fun. The only issue is the drying time. Patience and 3 1/2 year olds don't always go hand in hand, so trying to get B1 to understand that she can't run off and show everyone her picture for a while tends to result in a melt down.

In an effort to find a quick drying paint, I discovered cornflour paint! Take one box of cornflour, a few small containers, a little water and whatever colours of food dye you may have hiding in the back of a cupboard. Put a little cornflour in each container, add a few drops of food colouring to each one, then add a little water and mix. If you'd rather not use food colouring (it's not really clothing or furniture friendly) you can mix it with different coloured fruit juices instead.

Black paper tends to work better than lighter coloured paper. It goes on watery, but within a few minutes it starts to dry and begins to look more like chalk than paint.