One day, while I was attempting to tidy up the garage with a little too much “help” from my younger kids, I stumbled upon an idea. The older kids were off playing in the treehouse, but I always get a bit anxious when the smaller ones start climbing without supervision. The girls were eager to play with sidewalk chalk, but the last batch had been used up by the older kids, who had colored our entire driveway a few weeks prior.
While cleaning, I discovered a large bag of calcium carbonate I typically use for making whitening toothpaste. This sparked a thought: why not make our own sidewalk chalk? Although I couldn’t figure out how to make it into solid pieces like regular chalk, I came up with a better plan—sidewalk chalk paint!
After the infamous living room wall painting incident in 2013, the little girls hadn’t had many opportunities to paint. So, when I proposed the idea of painting the driveway with sidewalk chalk paint, they were thrilled! Our driveway is black, so I initially kept the paint white but later experimented with adding natural food coloring and turmeric for some color options.
I mixed half a cup of calcium powder with water to get the consistency I wanted, using about a 1:1 ratio. It worked perfectly. I poured the paint into a dish, handed the kids some brushes, and they were entertained for hours.
The paint washed off easily afterward, so I’m not sure how long it would last if left. Interestingly, you can mix calcium carbonate powder with regular latex-based paints to create chalk paint for furniture or cabinets.
What creative activities have you accidentally discovered for your kids?
