Long summer holidays! If you are a parent, then that exclamatory phrase probably transpires into a dreaded time of broken artifacts, messy, and stained rooms, and listening to a constant monotonous chant of 'I am bored'. And if not that, then it is the fear that your kids are going to win the next contest which announces the Couch Potato of the Year. Well, one way of keeping your kids occupied is to get them engaged in different art activities. You never know, but making them join something like watercolor art lessons may help in displaying their aptitude for painting. Watercolor paintings are your best bet when it comes to children, since they can be easily washed off, because they are made from pigments that are water soluble. Painting can be quite a messy affair, so be sure to assign a room to your kids where they can work on their projects. Watercolors or aquarelle, as they are known in France, are not the easiest mediums to work with, as painting with them requires mastery over the technique. Watercolor Paint Crafts for Kids » Color Wash: Draw your basic design or image with a crayon on an art paper sheet. Dip a brush in water and wet the paper by running the brush over it. Then paint it with watercolors. Make sure that the paint is diluted. The paint will fill in everywhere except the area which is drawn in with the crayon. » Color Twirls: Take a rectangular sheet of paper. Near the corners, put four thick blobs of four different colors. Using your index fingers, start spreading the colors, two blobs at a time, in a twirly, or hurricane-like fashion till they meet in the center. Do the same with the remaining two colors till they meet near the center. This will give a four tone effect to the center, while maintaining the individuality of the colors near the corners. » Resist Painting: Masking paint is required for this type of painting, which is readily available at any art supply depot. On a piece of art paper, draw a design that you want, and fill it in with masking paint. Now paint the rest of the paper in any pattern that you like. Rub off the masking paint, with your fingers. If you want to use layers of colors in the original design, you could use the paint on different parts and color it one section at a time. » Salted Color Paintings: On an art paper sheet, draw the outline of the image that you want to paint. Paint in the areas that you would want the attention to be on. Ensure that you paint these areas in bright colors. Now sprinkle regular salt on this section, and let it dry. The salt creates a beautiful pattern and gives the painting a speckled texture. Once the painting is dry, you can brush off the salt and paint the other areas carefully. » Wet Paintings: Dip your art paper sheet into a bucket of water. Take it out and smoothen the sheet on a plastic table. Paint thick coats of different colors on the sheet and then with your fingers, make abstract designs. Give it a blurry and fuzzy feeling. After the painting dries, you can use sketch pens to draw a design on it. » Zebra Color Paintings: Paint the entire piece of paper black and let it dry. Use only white watercolor paint to make designs on the paper. You could also reverse this idea, using only black paint on a pure white sheet of paper. » Spray-painting: Take a sheet of paper and paint it in a pastel shade. You can lighten a watercolor paint by adding water or white color to it. Take an old toothbrush, and dip it in a contrasting darker color. Then hold the brush on top of the paper, and run your index finger over the bristles of the brush. The droplets that will fall on the paper will form a beautiful design. » Thread-painting: For this, a spool of thread is needed. Take a piece of paper and keep it on a flat surface. Take a piece of thread and dip it in paint. Now place this thread on the paper in any design of your liking. Press onto one end of the thread, and pull the thread using the other end. This will cause the formation of a design on the paper. These watercolor art projects allow kids to explore new avenues in arts and crafts. You can either use the aforementioned ideas, or twist them a little with your own ideas.