This invitation to play is about enjoying the journey, something my dad often reminds me of after hearing stories, good or bad, about my girls.  On a tray, I set up dreidels cut out from Gigi’s drawings and paintings that we’ve accumulated piles of.  I added some gold tinsel, gems in different shapes and glitter glue.  I put it all on a table next to a taped up piece of clear contact paper sticky side up on the wall.  We use contact paper all the time and often have an ongoing mural in the making in our play area.  This one was especially fun because of the dreidels.  We’ve been reading a lot of Hanukkah books, gearing up for the holidays in a couple of weeks, so dreidels are the hot topic in my house right now.

I had everything ready for when the girls woke from their nap.  Gigi immediately found her way over to the table.  She grabbed a dreidel almost immediately and started looking around.  I didn’t anticipate this to be a cutting activity but the first question out of her mouth was, “Mama, where’s my scissor?”  I was a bit hesitant because I thought she would decapitate all the dreidel stems but then I reminded myself to enjoy the journey.  Art with toddlers is all about the process.   Whenever I’ve tried to force a specific outcome from a project it totally fizzles and leaves both Gigi and myself feeling unsatisfied.  So, I gave her the scissors and watched.  She happily cut slits in dreidels for almost 10 minutes and then placed them strategically on the contact papered wall.  Then came the paint dots, which I also hadn’t anticipated.  They just happened to be on the table.  She loved this part.  Each dreidel got painted and so did the contact paper itself, which I thought was so cool.  In between each step Gigi sang “Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel…I made it out of clay” and danced around the table.  It was awesome.  Talk about enjoying the journey.  This little girl was in art heaven and I loved every second of it.

Then little d came around and made here way over to the paint dots, which she uses daily now.  She loves these things.  If you don’t have a set, I highly recommend them.  There’s a reason they’ve been around forever.  They are awesome!  I keep them out on our art table permanently and both my girls love them, sometimes a little too much, as you can see below.

The last steps were the glitter glue, gems and tinsel, all great fine motor building and muscle strengthening activities.   The whole process lasted about 40 minutes.  I’d say that’s pretty amazing for a two and a half year old and the sign of a really good time.  So yes, Dad, we enjoyed the journey.  Thanks for the reminder.  I hope you do too. x