We have two times of the day when we watch TV. In the morning just after the children wake up and at night just before bed. Other than those times we have a no TV policy. So my kids need to find lots of things to keep themselves busy all day. Here’s how we set up our home so that there aren’t a lot of “I’m bored!” statements.
Art cabinet
I have an entire cabinet in my laundry room dedicated to arts and craft supplies. Ziplock bags full of stickers, feathers, pom poms, and yarn. I have drawers full of construction paper, glitter, pipe cleaners and googly eyes. I have a shelf devoted to paint, brushes, water containers and rags. My children always have access to this cabinet. We have dedicated a counter in my kitchen to art (when I am not using it for cooking.) This is the counter most painting and craft projects happen. I have taught my children to wear smocks and we keep those hanging on the wall where the children can reach them. I have also taught my children how to clean up. My children are 11yo, 8yo, and 6yo–> my six year old is very capable of taking out the paint/craft supplies, doing art, then cleaning up==> all on her own!
Toy Bins
We purchased an IKEA cube shelf a LONG time ago to organize the toys that we have. I bought plastic rectangular ‘shoe’ bins with lids to contain the toys on the shelf and make for easy transportation to the living room (or elsewhere.) And I labeled each of the bins with masking tape with written words and pictures of the item (When my children were toddlers and they couldn’t read, they could look at the pictures and know which toy belonged in that container.) This system was adopted from a preschool daycare philosophy and we found it made finding toys and cleaning up toys very easy. Toys tend to get lost in toy boxes and missing/broken pieces make toys less attractive to kids. By adopting this preschool philosophy of toy storage we have been able to maintain the quality of our toys ==> some for more than 11 years!
Work Space
We have a toy room where we keep most of our toys. This room is kid friendly with a kid-sized table, stools, area rug and lots of kid artwork on the walls. This is where we display all of our masterpieces and conveniently this system allowed me to maintain more ‘adult’ decor throughout the rest of the house! Bonus! Since my children were toddlers we have always had an art area. There is an easel set up with a paper roll in our toy room now, but when they were small I had an art table with a roll of paper on it and markers and crayons readily available. When they were toddlers I assisted them with painting and we did a TON of painting outside. In fact I kept an easel outdoors during their younger years! Now they paint either at the easel or on the counter in the kitchen ==>and even outdoors sometimes. Today they are painting a scene for a movie they are shooting called “The Secret Woman.”
Creating kid-friendly work spaces and teaching your children how to use them is key to keeping your kids ‘working’ all day on creative activities. If your toys and arts/craft supplies are organized at the child’s level and your children know how to use them AND clean up, your kids will surprise you with how busy they can be all day long. You will never (okay==> almost never) hear, “I’m bored.” AND best of all your kids will surprise you with their creative, innovative ideas!
DIY Milk Crate Seats!
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