Toddler art and OCD don't play well together -or- Oh No!! They are mixing the colors!!!

 

I'm pretty good about letting the kids explore a new material on their on own terms, but I did bristle when the dough colors started mixing. I know it's my own hang up. They would happily smash all the colors together and make brown. I also know that I'll eventually get over it and give them more than two colors at a time and let them have at it. But, for the time being, they each choose a color and shred it to bits with the dough scissors, and then mash it back together and make snakes cadapidders. There was a lot of kneading and pinching and flattening too. This is only their 2nd time with play dough (I was nervous about the wheat, and the w/f dough that we tried to make was terrible) , and we'll have many more chances to experiment with it. I'm guessing that right now, it's more about playing with motor skills anyway. I'm wondering what other parents do with dough. What happens to the dough that is all mixed together? Do you just pick the dominant color and store it in that container? Do you have a separate container just for it? What's really interesting to me is that I have no problem with paint being mixed in the paint pots.