When I introduced watercolors to my children for the first time (back when they were 3 and 2), I thought that the concept of dipping the paintbrush in the paint, wetting the paint, cleaning the brush after each go, etc, would be way above their level. (Spoiler alert: I was correct.)
So instead I just dropped a few drops of water into each color before starting the activity, and had no expectation that they wouldn’t mix colors or that they would clean their brushes in any way.
This was the longest they had ever explored with paint brushes. With tempera/washable paint, they would flip to finger painting and body painting, like, instantaneously. So this was a lot of fun.
They tried painting with the brush side of the brush, and also the wooden-stick side of the brush as well. And then they explored poking holes in the wet paper. And then driving cars through the holes in the wet paper.
This is why I say, follow their lead. There are all sorts of things to learn through playing!
