I’ll admit it, I was hesitant to set L loose with a glue stick. Then I remembered that I did it in the classroom all the time when I was teaching, so why couldn’t I do it with my own child?
L always likes looking at the grocery store ads that come in the mail each week, so I decided to make this gluing work grocery themed. (It doesn’t have to have a theme — gluing colored scraps of paper onto a larger paper is just as good). I cut out a bunch of pictures from the ads and put some in a small box on the tray. I drew a quick (QUICK, people! Stop laughing!) shopping cart on some old paper, and added a glue stick.
When L found this work on the shelf, she was so excited. Before we did ANYTHING we had a long talk about the glue stick. I explained that she could open it, but only Mommy could twist it. It goes on the paper AND THAT’S IT. And you know what? So far, she’s been very good with it. She likes to put a little too much on the paper, but she’s not eating it or putting it anywhere it doesn’t belong, so I can’t really complain.
I showed L how to make a dot of glue on the paper.
Then I showed her how to put the groceries on the dot of glue and repeat. L loves this work! She does it multiple times a day and insists on hanging EVERY shopping cart on my fridge. Some of them may have “fallen” into the garbage can…
Gluing is great for fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination. It also provides an interesting sensory experience (sticky hands!) which leads to a practical life lesson in hand washing.