When we first moved to our new area, it was quite an adjustment. While my oldest daughter was in school, I struggled to find activities for my preschooler to do. Apart from her small preschool class, she was bored. I would try and take her to the park but in the middle of the day, especially in the fall and winter, there usually wasn’t very many kids to play with.
One morning, while running errands, a sparkly rock caught our eye. It was nestled in a flower bed outside of the grocery store. We picked it up to admire it and on the back in black lettering, it said we could either keep or re-hide. This was our first kindness rock and my daughter was so excited.
After doing some research online, I discovered a Facebook group in our area dedicated to painting and hiding rocks all around our small town. My daughter and I started visiting parks and walking trails that we hadn’t known existed, all in pursuit of these painted rocks. It gave us a bonding activity to do together. We also met other parents and children along the way. I even met my oldest daughter’s future best friend while rock hunting.
We started designing our own rocks, painting small pictures with bright colors or inspiring words. We hid them all over town to spread kindness and hopefully uplift someone’s day. Occasionally, we’d see our rocks posted on the Facebook page, thanking us or otherwise sharing with us how our simple rock made them smile.
If you are looking for a fun, easy and affordable craft project to do with your children, then I highly recommend this. Any type of acrylic paint will work and as long as you use a sealer afterwards, the paint will be protected from the rain.
These are my recommendations for rock painting supplies.
- Apple Barrel Acrylic Paint. They are relatively inexpensive and cover rocks well. Using a
- base coat first helps with a more uniform color on your rock.
- Krylon Sealer. My favorite is the glitter blast. It leaves rocks with a shiny, sleek finish.
- Dotting tools. I started out using nail art dotting tools but now they have sets dedicated to rock dotting.
- Paint pens specifically for rocks. These are great for outlining your designs or for writing words.
- Mod Podge. This is another great way to seal rocks and you can even mod podge a label, picture or sticker onto them.
My girls are older now and though the obsession with rock hunting is over, we still paint them, hiding them all over town or giving them away as gifts. I have even helped set up small painting parties for the kids in our neighborhood. I like to believe our rocks have traveled all over the United States, spreading joy wherever they are hid! A little kindness, even in something as simple as a rock, can go a long way!
