Frustrations!

[Helen Dempster]

Does anyone get frustrated when you take ages to plan an activity, set it all out etc, for it not to go as planned? For instance, when we recently made Diwali diyas using clay, the older mindee (8) made...I don't know what...and used tons of the stuff, took ages to dry! He did put a candle in it though When my hubby came home, he said "oh a frog" I know we are meant to let them do their own thing, but it's sooooooo frustrating sometimes!

[Lady Haha]

Yes!!! We made creepy witches fingers from clay for Halloween and one of my mindees wanted to make a spider instead (which we had already done the month before when learning about spiders!), so then another mindee thought 'mmm, I want to make a spider too' and then another mindee thought making a spider sounded like fun........out of five mindees, only two made the fingers, the other three made spiders

Which is a shame, cos the fingers were BRILLIANT!!!!

[FussyElmo]

It used too but now I have learnt that guaranteed one of them wont want to make that but do something else so I prepare myself beforehand.

[The Juggler]

thing is at the end of the day we do these activities to teach them to be creative and how/different ways to use materials and equipment so if they are independently being creative with what you give them then you've been doing your job properly

[sarah707]

I have found over the years I have become used to it!

When dd was little my teaching background told me to re-position the eyes on the fluffy sheep and to put a mouth in the right place so that pictures looked as they were supposed to look.

Now after 17 years I am much more laid back and think that at least they want to join in and get creative!

In this world of computers and televisions, we are still inspiring children and that's the most important thing!

[sillysausage]

I think with all children you have to take a step back and think about what they have gained from the experience. They may not have done what you wanted them to do but they may have had an enjoyable time neverthless and will have learnt something or strengthened their existing knowledge. Letting them do their own thing means that you are letting them follow their own interests.

I had a couple of teenagers in the half term holiday who suddenly were into junk modelling again....no interest in the things I'd planned and bought for them to do, but had a ball with boxes, tubes, various bits of metal/screws/nails etc from DH's tool/junk/bits box in the cellar and not to mention my hot glue gun (they used a lot of that )

[Andrea08]

lol i would say we are making fingers first and tehn you can use the materials left over to creat what you want.. x