Cardboard Stamping and Letting Your Kids Take Control

I got the idea for cardboard stamping from Julie K in Taiwan. We made our own cardboard stamps from a box that held one of our favorite treats (Strawberry Twirl Cookies) and cut and taped them into different shapes and sizes. My idea was to have the boys use the stamps to create pictures on the paper. Honestly, the only one that was into it was Reece. Wyatt made one picture with the stamps and then quickly started using the stamp as a brush and Seth stamped one time and said he didn't want to do it. My first instinct is to tell them to do it and do it the right way, but I decided to let them do what they wanted. I let Reece stamp to his little hearts contentment and let Wyatt use the stamp as a brush. I asked Seth what kind of art project he would like to do because I didn't just want him to go back to playing or trying to watch TV. He said he wanted to do a Lightening McQueen project. I thought one of the stamps we made looked like a car, but he said it didn't so I gave up on that. Then I remembered that we had colored pasta shaped wheels from our sorting project from the other day so I asked him if he'd like to glue those on paper and he said yes. Yeah, Success!! So, I gave him a bottle of glue and bunch of the pasta and he got busy. Wyatt saw what Seth was doing and wanted to glue pasta as well so he joined in and Reece did too. So, we ended up having a long afternoon of art which was so much better than what I had planned. It just goes to show that when I let go of the control that things work out better in the end.