Today I am totally honored to be writing up a guest post for Crayon Freckles. They call me Ms. Liz over at the Fit Kids Clubhouse, which is not only the name of where I blog, but also the homeschooling preschool where I spend my days with a bunch of amazing Clubhouse Kids. I still feel so incredibly new to this whole blogging thing that when “keep thinking outside the crayon box, andie” said I could post here, I immediately tried to come up with some amazingly creative preschool activity that would be deemed worthy.
I found an *all new* washable finger paint recipe online, and
printed out some darling little empty tree templates. We were all ready to whip
up a fantastic batch of brilliant Fall colors they could dip their little
Clubhouse fingers into to add lovely Autumn leaves to their trees. Oh it was
definitely going to result in a Pinterest perfect post.
Instead we got this.
We followed the finger paint recipe perfectly.
No really, we did.
I think.
Maybe I was supposed to stir faster while adding the corn
starch. Maybe the heat was too low. Maybe my measuring cup leaked. There goes
the perfect finger paint for pretty Fall leaves. No way could we use this mushy
slop to paint a thing.
The Clubhouse Kids laughed when they saw what we had
created. We’ve made a lot of paint around here, they were not fooled.
“Ms. Liz, that’s not paint!”
Instead of throwing the entire substance in the trash and
expecting a group of 3-4 year olds to be patient while we attempted it again, I
plopped the pile of “finger paint” onto our work table.
“What do we do now Ms. Liz?”
What do you think we could do?
Our ingredients were still on hand, and so they quickly got
to work spreading corn starch on top of the paint pile and mashing it in.
It was warm and pliable. They kneaded and rolled in more corn
starch until they created a much doughier substance.
We may have not made proper finger paint, but they started
making finger prints anyways.
Turns out they had a lot of fun taking the sloppy pile of
cornstarch, water, sugar and dish soap (in case you were wondering what was in
the original recipe), and making it something all their own.
I wasn’t going to post about this at all, much less use it as
a guest post on a blog that I adore. Then I realized something. If I always
scrap the failed recipes, botched activities, and less than stellar results, it
may appear as though everything in my blog land is picture perfect. That I have
perfectly planned activities, create perfect recipes, and take perfect
photos.
Wrong.
What I do have is fun. A lot of fun. We laugh at our messes.
We talk about where we may have gone wrong. We work with what we have.
We don’t always execute a planned activity perfectly, but we
always plan to enjoy whatever activity we do end up with.
The Clubhouse Kids thoroughly enjoyed the “soap dough” they
made, having named it so because it smelled of dish soap.
I could totally make up a new recipe here, crediting the
Clubhouse Kids for their creation. Maybe I will.
Today though, today I wanted to share that although
everything looks perfect on Pinterest,
sometimes if you let them be,
the fails are the most fun!
I’m just speaking for me though, I’m sure that Andie never
has a fail :)
Thanks for letting me share a day at the Clubhouse. If you’d
like to read more of our Clubhouse Adventures (sometimes we do get the recipes
right, I promise), head on over and visit the Clubhouse at our blog, or on our Facebook page.
Yes, we will still have trees with no leaves... for now
;)
Ms. Liz
What a great save, to turn it into play dough!
ReplyDeleteIt's so true! Sometimes the biggest fails are the most fun. :)
ReplyDelete