Some ideas should come with a warning

I am probably a nut, but there are some mornings I wake up just sure I have stunted my children by not allowing them to do the creative, explorative things that I see on Pintrest and various mommy blogs.  On those mornings I pour over internet ideas and pick one that seems the most likely to repair the aforementioned damage and springboard my kids into self-actualization.

Today I picked oil and water bottles and button sorting.

I was just sure that was what my children were lacking.  I thought after a good hour or so of thoughtfully pondering why the oil and the water in the bottles were not mixing, my children would sit at the table earnestly sorting buttons and engaging in spirited discussion about nuclear fission.  All the while I could clean the accumulated dishes and periodically offer pithy interjections.

We started out pretty strong.  Laine requested that we turn his water green and we did so using blue and yellow.  Annabel asked for "boo," and we were off!

The kids vigorously shook their superglued bottles (I'm not crazy), asked for different colors, threw them on the ground a few times then sprinted off totally uninterested.

Undaunted, I pulled out my muffin tins and buttons dreaming of firing synapses and beautiful blog posts.  I explained to Annabel that I wanted her to sort beads into colors and Laine that I wanted him to match the buttons together.

Then Ollie woke up.

I was gone for maybe twelve seconds.  Maybe.

You can get a lot of stuff down an floor vent if you work together.  So, I guess that part of my plan worked...


Maybe I should have tried the toilet paper and glue modeling clay.