Playdough Guilt

So I have been dreading this day, the day I let them have Playdough. I know from my previous years working in a daycare with 2 year olds just how crazy it can get, so I tried to put it off as long as I could, until the playdough guilt set in.

I guess you could define the phrase Playdough Guilt as "having the knowledge of how to make playdough, the means and the tools, knowing the children are ready and capable of utilizing this fun mixture of flour, salt, water, and oil, YET resisting the experience as long as possible. However, intense feelings of depriving the children of this doughy fun as well as the importance of fine motor development gradually lead one to reluctantly subcome to the fun."

So much to my surprise it went great, better than I expected! They loved the playdough, they stayed seated at their table, without my intervention and they played. There were a few bites of the oh so salty dough, but they quickly realized it was not a snack and rather nasty tasting. It was pretty funny to watch them take a bite then gag and spit it out. I did have to remind them several times that it was yucky, as they sometimes had to just try it again as to make sure all of it really was that nasty. We made snakes and balls mostly out of it. Well, Mommy made the snakes and balls and they enjoyed them. We learned how to squeeze, poke and smash the dough as well as using a few cookie cutters on it to make shapes. We managed to escape without much mess and I was delighted!