We have a lifesaving Activity Jar at our house. Why lifesaving? Because it was born out of utter frustration and exhaustion of listening to my three
devils beautiful children arguing non-stop on the drive home from the grocery store one summer day last year. As I was driving down the highway, I thought seriously of stopping roadside and letting the kids walk the rest of the way home. Yea, I know it was still 10 miles to our house, but really - the noise! Instead, I devised a plan in my head, and as soon as I got home, I put it into action, and that afternoon resulted in 2-1/2 hours - yes, that many hours! - of beautiful behavior and fun for my children. I think what they all really needed was time alone to do a project without a sibling telling them how to do it. And I needed time to actually hear the voices in my head, instead of the arguing ones outside my head!
This activity jar is great to pull out when the weather is too rainy or snowy or stinkin' hot to go outside. It is a cure for sibling tensions. It is a cure for the "I'm bored" whines. I cannot say enough good things about it. You *need* to make one for your family. Let me show you how.
Start with a simple wide mouth container. It has to accommodate a child's hand reaching in. I had found 3 of these matching glass containers at the local Goodwill one day, and loved that they were square instead of round. It was perfect for this project.
Next, get a piece of cardstock and cut it into strips. With a sharpie
marker, write down as many activities as you can think of that your
child(ren) can do on their own with very limited adult interaction for
30 minutes. We picked toys that hadn't been played with for a while, and
things the kids loved doing, and made sure it was a wide variety of
activities. My kids are very close together in age (currently, 6,7 &
8) so I didn't have to worry much about different activities for
different ages - it all worked. If you have kids further apart than I
do, first, you might be more sane than I, and second, you might want to
use different color cardstock for each child.
Last,
make your jar attractive, because it will be out for all to see. And you
can impress your other mom friends at the same time, and share with
them your sanity saver.
And then you are ready for the
fun to begin! We let each child pick a slip of paper, and the rule is
you cannot exchange it - you have to do what it says. Then we gather the
activity, put each child in a different room, and set the timer. 30
minutes of activity. And you know what? It works like pixie dust! The
kids have fun, they know they won't be stuck doing the same thing for
the rest of the day, and they enjoy playing with something they haven't
hardly looked at for a while.
Giant Picture Page Craft Project Trio Blocks
