We're Starting Today

While browsing the web for toddler craft ideas, I came across the blog, Unplug Your Kids. Regrettably, we are not an "unplugged" family...we have Dora, we have WonderPets. We have toys that play music, count in Spanish, flash, giggle and spin. But we also take walks, play in the sand, paint, hunt for treasures, camp, and chase butterflies. Two weeks ago, we walked to the park and flew a kite. I'm pretty proud of the balance we have in our lives, but I sometimes need a kick to move us out of the living room and into the world.

The Unplugged Project gives a theme every week which families use as a guide for some activity away from the TV set. Then everybody blogs about it and shares a link to their stories...I'm in. We missed "paint" last week, but I was excited to see the adjective "sticky" for this week. When I told M about it, he responded as I thought he would..."So, we're starting next week, right?" Nope, we're jumping right in to sticky. Sorry, hon.

I decided to revisit an activity we first tried about 6 months ago...cornstarch peanut sculpture. You know, a lot of those packing peanuts you get nowadays are made of cornstarch. They dissolve when you put them in water. But if you just wet them a little, you can stick them to each other and build things. When we first tried it, it was a little too advanced for E's fine motor skills, but I thought she might do well with it now. So I set the kitchen table with a pie tin full of peanuts and one with a little puddle of water and we sat down to work.

She really enjoyed it, but it was still a little advanced for her. She had the will, but not the gentle touch required. I asked her if she wanted to make snakes, but she wanted to make squares. "BIG squares." So together, we stuck together about 20 peanuts in the shape of a square. That one wasn't big enough, so we made a BIGGER square. Then we wet our hands and mushed them both into a sticky, mushy mess on the table. It was really pretty fun, but we had no product at the end. I ended up dissolving all the partly used ones and scraping the residue into the trash, and reminding myself that it's all about the process.

I think we'll try this one again in another 6 months. Oh, and by the way....after she was done with the cornstarch, she did another "sticky" activity quite by accident. She asked me for stickers, and then peeled off every last one and stuck them to her right leg. There they stayed for the rest of the day. Good girl. Way to get into the spirit of things!