going with the flow with salt dough

Another title for this post might be 'How to go with the flow when your preschooler wants to do something completely different than the activity you planned to do with her'.

I didn't tell her what I had in mind as I do like to go with the kids creative ideas, but today I did have what I thought would be a fun idea brewing.

I wanted to make salt dough people and creatures and then make a diorama for them.

She wanted to feel the ooey mixture of salt flour and water on her hands.

                           

I wanted to add one color to each ball of dough that would then get made into a specific shape.

She wanted to splatter color all over the big mound of flour and salt.

I wanted to be careful not to get food coloring all over our hands.

She wanted to smoosh all the colors onto the ball and see how many she could get on her hands.

I wanted to break the ball in to smaller pieces and color each of them.

She wanted to make a volcano.

I wanted to play with the volcano.

She wanted to cut the ball in to smaller pieces and bake them 'into candy'.

Before baking on parchment paper for 2 hours at 200 degrees. You can also let them air dry over night.

The stained counter top before I scrubbed it with Bon Ami. 

 It was a wonderful lesson for me to remember to listen and have patience. Do you find it true that you have agendas and lists for the day and if they get derailed it can be very frustrating? If you are a parent, have you become more or less patient when this happens (since having kids)? 

Losing track of my agenda is a daily occurrence for me and sometimes I am more patient than others.

I tend to be more patient if I've slept well, not drunk a glass of wine with dinner the night before, and had 30 minutes to myself before the kids wake up. 

What about you? What helps you to be more patient with your children / co-workers / spouse?