An Unusual Learning Tool for Young Kids

How about an easy way to teach your child colors, fine motor skills, and patterns while bonding with her and using something that’s eco-friendly ? Try Piggy Paint! Tori Spelling, Lisa Rinna and Larry Birkhead love it for their little ones.

Piggy Paint is a kid-friendly, non-toxic, odorless and completely natural nail polish formulated just for kids, developed by Melanie Hurley, the mother of two fancy little girls. She is a former elementary school teacher turned entrepreneur who has some great tips for using her natural nail products for teaching your kids.

From the Piggy Paint website (www.piggypaint.com), here are Melanie’s learning tips:

Fine Motor Skills
Let your child paint your fingernails or toenails. If you’re worried about it looking (well, like a child painted your nails), opt for the toenails…you can always put socks on in public! This helps with her fine-motor skills and gives her a chance to exert her independence.

Color Names
Are you trying to teach your child color names? Paint her nails with the specific color you’re working on (such as red) and declare it a “Red Day”. All day long, point out objects in her environment that match her nails, and encourage her to do the same. Wear red clothes, add red foods to mealtime and use a bath color tablet to make her bath water red. Once she’s mastered that color, paint her piggies a new color.

Patterns
Recognizing different types of patterns is a hard concept learn for children to learn, so why not put patterns right at their fingertips? For example, if you’re working on simple patterns, alternate blue and yellow “Piggy Paint” on her fingers. As you go through the day, help her to make patterns with her toys, M&M‘s, crayons, beads…use your creativity. Have her refer to her fingernails for help. Start out with color patterns and then attempt other categories, such as big doll, little doll, big doll, etc. Ready for harder patterns? Move to three different colors or alternate pink, purple, purple, pink, and so on.

School Colors
Does your daughter play any sports? Perhaps she has a favorite high school, collegiate, or professional team she cheers for. If so, paint her nails with her team’s colors to show her support.

Painting fingers and toes with your young one is a great bonding experience with mom too, Hurley tells Family First. It gives you quality, quiet time together. Melanie suggests singing songs while the paint dries – a couple rounds of the ABCs and her nails will be set. Then just blow dry with a hair dryer to finish it up and she’ll be good to go!

Piggy Paint is available in a rainbow of colors with kid-appropriate names like Glass Slipper, Angel Kisses, Twinkle Toes and Melanie’s favorite, Mac-n-Cheese Please, which is what her daughters request for lunch.  It contains no toxic chemicals and is free of formaldehyde, toluene, phthalates, Bisphenol A, ethyl acetate and acetone (those sound scary, huh?) so you don’t have to worry about your child ingesting anything harmful. Piggy Paint also offers a natural nail polish remover to accompany the nail polish.

Hurley was inspired to develop a natural alternative to kid nail polish when she accidently dripped some of the other kind on a foam plate one day. The paint started bubbling and eventually ate right through the plate.  She began working with a scientist to develop the natural alternative that has taken off in popularity. What started in her basement has grown and now she has two partners in the business and hopes to expand the line to more tween and teen-oriented products and even a line for mom!

Hurley says the eco-friendly angle really appeals to the tweens and teens because they are concerned about the earth. In their Project Earth line, they offer neon-bright colors such as The Boyfriend Blues, Eat Your Peace and Solar Power.  

Piggy Paint was Tori Spelling’s choice for her daughter Stella McDermott’s 1^st birthday. After receiving samples for her swag bag, Spelling requested the Piggy Paint ladies join them at the party to paint the tiny guests’ fingers and toes. You can view pictures from the party on the website – click Celebrity Sightings.

Larry Birkhead and Anna Nicole Smith’s daughter Dannielynn is also a fan as are Lisa Rinna and Harry Hamlin’s girls and Rena Sofer’s daughter. Hurley says the Los Angeles stores that carry Piggy Paint tell her many celebrities purchase Piggy Paint too, although they won’t tell who!

To learn more about Piggy Paint and to purchase some for your little one (or yourself), go to www.piggypaint.com . Hurley also suggests the website www.safbaby.com for all kinds of information about safe products for kids.