Just playdough. And a soapbox. ;)

 Sometimes as a teachermommy in this internet/pinterest/bloggy world it's easy to get captivated by all the amazing ideas/projects/crafts/manipulatives/etc. out there in cyberspace and feel like I have to be on a search to do the most FANTABULOUS (my daughter's word) things in the world with my kids.  Occasionally I have to reground myself and remember that sometimes simple is best.  I use a little visualization trick...I imagine the sweetest little preschool I can conjur up in my mind and think of the children engaged in the most stereotypical, old-fashioned, traditional preschool-ey tasks possible.  And then I take all of 2 minutes to prepare them (yeehaw!) and my kids are enthralled.  

So here's playdough.  Just playdough. 

 Beck is using some leftover green stuff we made at Christmastime from my favorite recipe. 

 Quinn mashed together a storebought can of purple and some leftover green. 

 Tools include some mini rollers, some blunt knives, some pizza cutters (2 that are almost identical but for some reason my kids fight over the "better one"), a couple of cookie cutters and a couple pieces of pvc scraps found in Daddy's shop.  Oh and a couple of buttons. 

 This was Beck's first intro to playdough and he ADORES it.  He asks for it at least a dozen times a day.  I save it for "tablework time" in the mornings after breakfast. 

Did I tell you it's just playdough?  Plain ole playdough.  Not even Pinterest playdough.  Just plain playdough.  And they played with it around 15ish minutes for 3 days this week. 

Now that's not to say I am not going to expand on the playdough and add in some other elements to encourage their creativity as time goes on.  It's just a reminder to be simple sometimes.  :)