Random...Do You Allow

[Hunni Bee]

...mixing together of Play-Do colors. It drives me nuts. Most kids are careful, but I always have a few boys that just want go crazy with it.

Grounds for immediate clean up.

Is it just me?

[choirlady76]

At my center, we are not allowed to let the kids mix up the colors, we use just one color and them another the next time.

[itlw8]

I used to give one color out on one side of the table and another on the other side and they needed to be colors that would mix pretty

BUT that was my problem not theirs I was putting limits on their creativity... playdough is cheap, all they really care about is if it is soft.

I never sent them away if they mixed it though......

NOW each picks a color and yes it gets mixed. They have learned a lot about mixing colors this year... yes after a year we are getting lots of brown They do not care at all.


This summer I will get some new and we wil start fresh but only because I love the bright colors the brown is still soft and fun.... they say it is cookie dough.

[Unregistered]

In the early years I would correct & prevent it. Now I just put two colours out at a time that blend well together and keep things relaxed. Plus it's learning - red & white make pink, red & yellow make orange etc. I starting questioning why does it matter, other than it no longer looks pretty, but they don't care about that so why should I

[itlw8]

my dgd went through a stage where every painting was s big brown blob she said it was chocolate. I solved that by taking a picture of her painting as she created it. so I could show the creative painting and she made chocolate like she wanted. LOL

[mema]

I don't, but I usually only have 1 maybe 2 colors at a time. I make 1 big batch. They usually don't care too much about the colors anyway-at least not the ones I've had.

[littlemissmuffet]

Makes me cringe! But I'm OCD.

I would love to be as chill as the pp who said mixing colors is a learning experience

[SquirrellyMama]

Playdough colors must be mixed! I can't imagine not letting them mix colors. I can always buy or make new dough. It drives my own kids nuts that I let the dck's mix colors. Not sure where they get that from. Must be their dad ::

[MamaBearCanada]

Usually one colour each at a time. As it gets closer to needing a new batch I start to let them mix. Brown plays oh makes me cringe though

[JenNJ]

Yes! I used to LOVE mixing it as a kid. Playing with one color gets VERY boring, VERY fast for little kids. I think it is the equivalent of having kids use one color crayon or only one color paint.

But you are talking to a woman who has her own personal stash of PlayDoh bc I love it so much.

[momofsix]

I don't allow mixing. I've been to busy to make play-dough lately so I bought a batch of 24 colors. It's nice to be able to know what color you're going to get by looking at the cover. I also have some kids that would get VERY upset to have brown play-dough when they were expecting green or pink!
Some of you do have me thinking though-maybe I am being a little ocd? Mixing colors most definitely would be a learning and creative opportunity! Maybe I'll have to have a talk with the kids and let them help decide what our play-dough rules should be.

[SquirrellyMama]

I don't allow mixing. I've been to busy to make play-dough lately so I bought a batch of 24 colors. It's nice to be able to know what color you're going to get by looking at the cover. I also have some kids that would get VERY upset to have brown play-dough when they were expecting green or pink!
Some of you do have me thinking though-maybe I am being a little ocd? Mixing colors most definitely would be a learning and creative opportunity! Maybe I'll have to have a talk with the kids and let them help decide what our play-dough rules should be.

I think it would be a good learning experience for these kids. Maybe a lesson in how to relax a bit.

I usually try to put all the mixed playdough in a plastic bag so you can see what color it is.

Kelly

[Leigh]

I hate that SOOO much, too! I love ORDER! But, kids love to mix colors-and honestly, the Play Doh isn't for me. So I let them do what they want with it and cry a little inside every time I see green and blue squished together.

[Evansmom]

In the Reggio approach children are taught the color wheel so that they can learn to choose colors that go together. Also teachers set out colors that are gradations of each other when they paint or do art so that the finished product always looks pleasing to the eye. I like this and take this approach when we paint or make play dough. We have a color wheel and they kids have access to it so that they can choose complementary colors. Maybe you can do this kind of thing with the play-doh? Plus the kids learn so much about color theory without really even knowing that they're doing it

[GoodKarma]

In the Reggio approach children are taught the color wheel so that they can learn to choose colors that go together. Also teachers set out colors that are gradations of each other when they paint or do art so that the finished product always looks pleasing to the eye. I like this and take this approach when we paint or make play dough. We have a color wheel and they kids have access to it so that they can choose complementary colors. Maybe you can do this kind of thing with the play-doh? Plus the kids learn so much about color theory without really even knowing that they're doing it

This is very interesting. Thank you for sharing