The summer vacations are here again and you have no clue how to keep your child occupied. Well, for one you are definitely not alone. Parents all over the world have the same problem of keeping their kids positively occupied for the duration of the long vacations. One way of doing so is to get them involved in some hobby class. Painting can be one such hobby that your kid can indulge in. If your kid does not seem interested in the brush and water color method of artwork, use one of the ideas given here to pique his interest. Salt Painting On a sheet of paper, children can draw the outer boundaries of the image that they want to paint. Next they will need to apply paint to all those areas that they want to be the focus of attention. Let them use bright and vivid colors for those areas. Next, make them sprinkle common salt all over the painted areas and allow it dry. Once dry, you will have a painting with a beautiful, speckled texture that can be a treat to the eyes. Brush off the salt, and then paint in the uncolored area. Spray Painting All you need for this fun method is an old toothbrush and some watercolors. First, paint a sheet of paper completely in a light-toned color that you like. Now take a bright color that contrasts with this color and dip your toothbrush in it. Hold the brush over the painted paper and run your fingers over the brush bristles. You can create a beautiful painting with the droplets that fall on the paper. Thread Painting You will need a spool of thread, watercolors, and art paper for this painting. Take a piece of the thread that you have and dip it in any paint color of your choice. Now just place this thread on the paper in an abstract manner to create a design that you find attractive. Place two fingers on one end of the thread, pressing it tightly in the process and then pull the thread using the other end. This will form a beautiful, abstract design on the paper. Dual Tone Painting As the name suggests, in this form of painting you use only two colors; any two colors of your choice that appeal to your aesthetic sensibilities. Now use one of the colors as your base color and the other one as the color which you will use to make your designs. There are many options for paint combinations that you can try. A popular combination is that of black and white. This form of dual tone painting is also known as zebra painting. Drenched Paper Painting The paper that you are going to create the painting on needs to be dipped into water. After that, take it out and then apply thick coats of different colors on the wet sheet, smoothing the paint out with your fingers to create varied designs. The abstract designs can be given a more concrete form after they dry, using sketch pens on the paper. Vegetable Block Painting This is a commonly-used painting project used in many arts and crafts classes. Cut up okra, potato and other such vegetables to create different designs. Dip the vegetables in paint and then stamp it on your art paper to create different, fun designs. All the ideas given here are ones that use watercolor paints which are one of the easier mediums for kids to work with, because they are easy to clean. Indulging in painting can be extremely therapeutic and can also help calm a person down. For kids, it can be a way to channel their energy in a positive manner.