There are lots of little skills that I think are important for kids to have a basic understanding. I know that lots of people think that gluing is a skill that young children need to learn. And as my memory serves from my own childhood and from watching my co-workers teach children about gluing, I find that we (adults) are hung up in the procedure of gluing. In early childhood education, we are pretty good at allowing children to explore open ended art when it comes to paint, but put restrictions on glue. Teachers are often leery of allowing children to experiment with as much glue as they would like to.
I tried to let go on this one and allowed Miles to use as much as he'd like. (I must admit that this is easier if you know the child well and the glue bottle only is 1/4 full.)
The other day, Chris had some scraps of wood left over from fixing up the deck. Miles has been very intrigued with the sculptures along the river front, so I asked if he'd like to create a wood sculpture with the scraps. We discussed how wood glue works and then you need to wet the surfaces that you are gluing together, so that as the wood dries the glue is pulled into the pores of the wood.
After he glued it together, we let it sit to dry over night. We sat it on waxed paper so it wouldn't glue to the table. The waxed paper didn't peel off quite like I had hoped, but you live and learn.
The next morning he painted it.
I don't think that using wood glue is a skill that every child must have. I do think that it was great for Miles to see that there are different procedures that go with various types of materials. Reading and learning and reading about how materials should be used is important for success of use.
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