Snow Men and other Experiments

We couldn't make a snowman when it snowed a few days ago because the snow was too dry. But now that the weather's been warmer and the snow has melted and gained some moisture, a snowman is very doable. (A little mushy but doable.) So Kenson and I went outside and rolled some snowballs, gathered some artifacts courtesy of the Great Outdoors and made a snowman. Kenson's contributions were somewhat limited. Okay, okay, he basically touched each snowball once very gingerly with his gloved hand and then grunted like he was really rolling it. Then I scurried to find twigs and such to use for a face and arms. I put one arm in and Kenson wanted to do the other one. Then I added the smile, the nose, and eyes. And watched as Kenson suddenly became scared of the thing we had created! He wouldn't even stand next to it to get his picture taken! Don't you love the "this is as close as I'm gettin' lady" look on his face? (And yes, I realize that is one homely snowman. You get what you get some days)

I then found a recipe for making faux snow and thought that might be fun to try since we had just played in the snow. Ivory soap + torn toliet paper + warm water = one slurry messy white mess. (Honest rating? Easy to make. Easy to mold into balls and other shapes. And it's just soapy water so even if it makes a mess, the clean up is easy.) I shredded the soap bar and let Kenson shred the toliet paper. We added the water and I showed Kenson how to make snowballs and a snowman. My neat freak of a child refused to touch it. The slimy whiteness was totally unappealing to him. I even tried the destruction route: building a snowman and then smashing with my hands. He wouldn't try that either. He did poke it a couple of times but he would not smoosh it in between his fingers or pat it into a ball. I did grab a piece of snow from outside and held it up next to what we had just made, hoping he would at least make the connection and not just think we were making some goopy gloppy mess.

And so what to do when said child does not want to participate? Change the project. So we added more water and got a spoon and practiced moving water from one place to another. We practiced stirring and making bubbles. We added refrigerator magnets and practiced hiding them. That was up his alley. (Maybe Mama isn't a crazy lady who wants me to touch yucky stuff after all.)