My son likes to "draw" which is pretty much dragging the pen all over the paper and saying "Aya" - airplane or "Aba" - bus. He loves it when we draw for him. I sometimes draw things he knows like bus, car, plane, umbrella and ask him what it is and he will say those words (in his own interpretation). It was also useful for teaching him colors. Now he knows green, blue, black, yellow and orange. I would suggest drawing for and with her. My son also likes if we take some plush animal and pretend it is drawing.

PAINT! it for sure is an outside summer time thing to do but my daughter absolutely loves it! it's great fun. We have a good time getting messy and then washing up in the tub as it makes cool colors in the tub. :O)

We started writing "letters" to family. It was cute to see how they wanted to do something different for each family member with different colors. washable paint is really fun, we colored int he bathtub, sidewalk chalk. It's so great to foster that interest!

at 11 months all you can really do is just let her explore. Give her RED crayons only one day...write the word RED and then let her go to town with it. Then the next day, do BLUE -- at least there is some education.

Even though she's not eating them, I would hesitate with paints since at 11 months they are SO prone to messes and the texture of paints on her hands could be a disaster for you. I would say try sidewalk chalk once she starts getting stronger/walking a little more, but maybe in the meantime you can do washable markers, color pencils (just for different textures) and then look into the BATH MARKERS that make colors on the walls of your tub but are actually soap...she may love that!

and ps - it's TOTALLY an interest at her age. My son LOVES music and is forever playing on our piano or drumming on things. DEFINITELY worth fostering.

I know my friend gave her 11 month old non-toxic paints and let her go to town (on their deck) and she loved it. I've been eyeing those bath paints/crayons for my daughter.. she does still put a lot of things in her mouth so I do think I will wait until she has stopped that behavior.

Oh, I mean, my friend's daughter painted on a big piece of paper on their deck. She didn't paint their deck, LOL.

Crayola has a great selection of art supplies. We even use water and construction paper and that works wonders :D We've also let them "paint" the deck with water. Keeps them busy for hours and not much of a mess :D I would just let her keep exploring with crayons and paper. It's so fun at this age when they learn and explore so much

Marlow walks and I'm worried about paint because she's fast! And I'm sure things would get painted that were not suppossed to be painted! How easily does crayola paint wash off? I've never actually used it for anything!

Thanks for the replies guys....she loves dancing and what I think she considers singing so we do alot of musical things, but art things seem so much harder to do at only one year old!

Washable markers are pretty washable even from light walls. Crayons too. And regular colored pencils don't even leave much of a mark and kids are happy with those as well.

you can make "pudding paints" too, take vanilla pudding and and a drop of food coloring to a bowl and paint away, non toxic. there are also several non toxic paints too. I gave mine a coloring book so he likes to look at the pictures and I help color the water and discuss how water is blue, grass is green, sky is blue etc, he loves to doodle. Our friends also gave us the aquadoodle which it great as you use water on this big pad and you can draw no mess.

the aquadoodle is great but you do NOT want it out when crayons and colored pencils are out. My girls colored on thier aquadoodle with real colors rather then water and I've yet to find a way to clean it off. I'd be tempted to try a mr clean magic eraser but I'm worried it might ruin the board (though I suppose the kids coloring did that already.

my problem is how to encourage the artistic behavior but get my kids to stop coloring on my walls. Love the art but I so wish it were on paper instead of on walls, body parts, or other household items (like fans)