Clean Mush: the five days plus infinity activity

Dearest Daughters,

It's not a brilliantly original idea that I let you play with "clean mush" (toilet paper, soap, borax and water). That's been done a million times over. In other people's homes. And classrooms. On the Internet. Via The Pinterest. Or our favorite art book.

It's not original, but it's certainly polemic.

"I can't believe you let your kids do that!" visitors declare.

"What a mess!"

Etcetera.

I'm not trying to be Susie Homemaker. Apologies, to Susie, if I'm offending her. And I'm not some early art experience guru.

I've said before and I'll say it again: these kind of things keep ME sane. Because the keep my kids BUSY.

This activity in particular, kept one or the other or both of you occupied for twenty to thirty minutes. SEVERAL DAYS IN A ROW!

DAY ONE. We made the stuff. And it was fun to see each of your personalities come out, in the manner you approached the clean mush.

Bel, you were very methodical and hands off. Danjo, you jumped right in. And I ended up moving you to the floor, because I'm being literal when I say that you jumped right in.

DAY TWO: We had sealed the mush back up in a large plastic container. So, on day two, we just potato mashered and wooden spooned and whisked away. Bel was less hesitant by this point and got her hands a little dirty. I was going to just throw the stuff away, but Great Grandma Gibbs was visiting and in her infinite wisdom thought I should keep it a little longer.

DAY THREE: GGG was right and you were both happy to play with the clean mush for another round. This time we squeezed out the mush and made sculptures. Triple G suggested making eggs. We squished and squeezed and then put our treasures in the unheated oven (with the light on) for a couple of days.

DAYS FOUR AND FIVE: were spent checking to see if our sculptures were dry and flipping them over.

Life happened and although Babybel did NOT forget about them for ONE second of ONE day EVER, our sculptures sat for a few days on the counter. We waited somewhat patiently to find a time to decorate them.

TODAY: While Danjo napped, we got to painting.

So, okay. It's not the tidiest thing. Or the most effortless thing. And I let you girls watch copious amounts of television, so compared to that, it is HARD.

But, I read this article recently about how in the United States we have this co=dependency dilemma. That we're not actually raising our children to be independent, even though it's such a dearly held American value. According to the study, American parents, don't make their kids DO things, because it's "just easier" not to make them; to just do it oneself. Kids aren't given respect for their abilities or the opportunity to contribute to the family unit.

And that's not totally related.

But, as I'm sweeping up dried bits of toilet paper mush and cleaning out the dryer lint trap full of toilet paper fuzz balls; when I'm wiping up paint or anxiously waiting for you to put your shoes on EVEN THOUGH WE NEED TO BE THERE IN FIVE MINUTES AND WE'RE SO LATE AND HURRY UP, MARIBEL! When I can't honestly tell you the percentage of waffle that actually made it into Danjo's mouth, because I've let her feed herself (despite the mess on her and the floor) since she was old enough to self-feed. When I can tell you how much sand Danjo ingested because I sat there and watched her do it.

For every moment of frustration and impatience and exasperation at how DIFFICULT it is, there are an exponentially rewarding amount of moments wherein I see (or foresee) not only your independence, but also your ability to contribute to this family, to help others around you and to, ultimately, be a functioning member of general society.

Thanks to clean mush, you girls will not be co-dependent, narcissitic, ego-maniac brats.

Or something like that.

Love,

Comments

[Judith Mcmurtry Rees]

love it