setting up your first tray

the ten minutes that decide whether it gets played with or ignored.

how you set a tray out matters more than what is in it. here is what we have learned from doing it badly first.

put out less than you think. one blend, one scoop, one bowl. an over-dressed tray reads as a finished picture, and children are reluctant to wreck a finished picture. a sparse one reads as an invitation.

set it up while they are not watching, then say nothing. do not announce it. a tray discovered on a table gets played with. a tray presented with a fanfare gets performed at for two minutes and abandoned.

sit down next to it yourself and start scooping without talking. this works on almost every child and we have never fully understood why.

leave it out for a few days. the second and third sittings are usually longer and more inventive than the first.