Stuck Like Glue

Lily and Glue, in the early days of The Barn.

Picture it: a pile of paper, a three year old, and a bottle of white glue. Oh, the possibilities. Oh, the horror! Somehow the concept of "just a little bit" does not compute. What seems so simple, just a dot or dab here and there, proves to be more elusive than the Loch Ness Monster.

So elusive...

Instead, puddles of glue seep over the edges of the paper and copious amounts of glue are wasted in paper towels. For quite a while, when I would do gluing/collage activities with kids, I would sit with them and help them with the glue. Usually that meant that I would put the glue on the paper and they would put the pieces where they wanted. But, for most kids, that doesn't hold the same satisfaction as doing it themselves. Sometimes I would squirt glue in small recycled Play Doh containers (also wonderful for many things) and give the children a cheap paintbrush to spread the glue.This worked well enough, but it was always a pain to clean out the Play Doh containers AND it usually ended up wasting a lot of glue.

See the little Play Doh containers and brushes?

Finally, I broke down and spent the best $12 ever. I bought a dozen glue jars from the Discount School Supply catalog. Oh, much-loved and highly-prized little glue jars, oh, beautiful and brilliant little glue jars, the angels sing your praises. The concept is the same as those wonderfully-scented jars of paste that we used as children. I love the smell of paste. Demeter Fragrance should create a Nostalgia-Paste scent (if they don't have one already). I'm not sure if they even sell paste anymore. Even though it was less messy to apply, it wasn't always easy to spread. The convenient thing about paste was the lid with the attached plastic stick applicator. What wasn't used was always left in the jar, and it couldn't be dumped out all over the place. 

It's safe to say that paste isn't widely used anymore... These are the Yahoo image search results for "paste."

The glue jars are clear and have little red lids with brushes attached. I fill them up about halfway and happily distribute them to the kids. The children can work on their collage/gluing projects on their own, and I don't have to worry about any "glue disasters." Sometimes if the glue gets too low, a child will tip the glue jar and spill it, so it's always a good idea to keep the jars about half-full. I buy cheap white glue by the gallon and it lasts a LONG time.

One of our glue jars at work during a tissue paper collage activity.

Want to get your own set of glue jars? Discount School Supply, sells art and classroom materials (usually by the dozen) for pretty reasonable prices. The also offer free shipping for any order over $79, which is easy for someone like me to reach. Shipping takes 2 days. If you have kids, work with kids, or are just a creative type, it's worth your while to check them out. (This is not a paid endorsement! :-)

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