Follow up from the last play dough post. I made another colour, as the blue (ish) stuff had gone a bit hard. Based on a tip off about red, (thanks Naomi), I made yellow, and the colour was fine, but when my two children were supplied with another colour, they mixed it. That's right, the first reaction from the oldest was, great, now I can try to make green!
And I have to report, that although I thought through what might happen, and although I told myself that was ok, I felt almost physically ill. I wanted to jump in screaming, "no no!".It is very hard to pretend to be happy about your childs enthusiasm for the new project when inside you're clenching your fists and thinking "...but..." (among other things, not limited to "that's not how you play with it!!")
Happy to say, I gritted my teeth and smiled, and after about half an hour, I was able to pretend to eat whatever I was presented with (all mixed...), and I came to the conclusion, how did I expect them to play with it? How do you play with two or more colours of play dough and NOT mix them?
Especially after you've gone to the effort of making it (not just buying it for 50c from Kmart like I do)! I preface the mixing with "I don't mind but you'll be playing with a gross brown colour from now on if you mix them". It always seems to turn brownish!
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