Experimenting with paints begins at an early age. Let's start at the beginning. Before technology and better living through chemistry, artists' pigments were made naturally using what nature provided. These are great for painting wood, papier- mache, or fired clay work. However, most of your painting activities will take place on paper so tempera paint should be your first concern.
Tempera comes in three forms - liquid, powder and blocks.
So - if you have a limited budget, make sure you get red, yellow and blue along with black and white. Now here's where science and art differ. In science white light is a combination of the colours of the spectrum while black is the total absence of light, and therefore colour.