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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I homeschool my three children. They are always coming up with new crafts and items to sell. So a few years back I decided to organize an entrepreneur day for some children in our local homeschool group. From this simple idea came many, many wonderful and exciting new products. The children that attended sold cookies, purses, toys, jewelry, bows and so many other great things.

One child in particular took her idea for a booth at our little entrepreneur day and turned it into a money making business with a goal in mind. She wanted to earn enough money to send herself to cheer camp. AND guess what===> she did!!!! I recently interviewed this young entrepreneur about her business with the hope that her story may inspire the inner entrepreneur in your children.

HOLFA: What is your business and your business name?

Maddie: My name is Maddie Waschak and I am 10 years old. I hand make and sell hairbows attached to rubberbands or barrettes. I mostly make my bows out of tulle, but I also use ribbon and rhinestones. My business name is Maddie Bows!

HOLFA: How did you get started in business?

Maddie: I first got the idea when Ms. Veronica decided to do an entrepreneur fair for home-schoolers. I know a Mom that makes really pretty cheer bows and I thought maybe I could make some bows of my own for the fair. I was so excited when people liked my bows!

HOLFA: How did you learn to manage the money for your business? Are you saving for anything?

Maddie: At first my Mom bought me all the supplies I needed, but when I started making money she told me that I would have to use my profit to buy more supplies. At first it was hard to spend my money on supplies but I learned how to price my product so that I could buy supplies and still make money. I have a special wallet that I keep all my money in; I also use it to make change for people who buy my bows. When I get too much money in my wallet my mom takes some and puts it into the bank. I wanted to save up enough money to pay for a really expensive sleep away cheer camp this summer.

HOLFA: Do your family members help you? How?

Maddie: My family sometimes helps me. The really tiny rhinestones are hard for me to apply so my mom puts those on. She taught me how to use the glue gun and checks to make sure that all my bows are selling ready. My brothers have helped me by going to events and taking turns sitting in my booth to sell bows when I can’t be there the whole time. Sometimes I will get orders when I am busy with school or gym or other stuff and my Mom always say school comes first. She sometimes helps me fill orders so I won’t miss out on other important stuff. My friends and cousins also help me come up with new ideas and help me make bows.

HOLFA: How do you see the future of your business?

Maddie: My brother wants to open an ETSY store for me and get me my own website. I would love to start selling my bows at stores and online. Right now I have someone who is helping me get started doing craft fairs and boutiques.

HOLFA: Do you have anything else you want to share?

Maddie: I managed to raise almost $600 this year and I was able to pay for my sleep away camp with a little help from my Mom. I can’t wait to go!! I have learned a lot this year from my business. I learned that making money is not easy and you have to spend money to make money and it takes lots of work.

I hope that sharing this interview with you has inspired you to listen to the entrepreneur waiting inside your child. Children are capable of being business owners and in some ways they are better at taking this leap into the unknown because they are natural risk takers. As adults we have too many responsibilities to take a risk with our career and income. But as children they have nothing to lose and EVERYTHING to gain. Successful entrepreneurs will tell you that it has taken a lifetime of mistakes and failures to get where they are. Why not start as a child?

I love reading books with my kids! Something just feels right about snuggling up and reading a good story. After the story we both feel like there should be something else that we do together. So here are a few of our favorite follow-up activities. You can do these or use these as ideas to create your own. Either way it will be double the fun from the same book!

Viking Ships at Sunrise by Mary Pope Osborne

This book inspired activity will be especially intriguing to kids from 5-8 years old. We used floral foam and popsicle sticks to carve out our own viking ship figureheads. Start with a small block and a picture of something you want to carve. We used the cover of the book as inspiration. Start with a drawing of the figure on the front face of the block and work backward. Again, perfection isn’t important here. Your children will be developing critical visual thinking skills and having fun at the same time. Be sure to do this activity outdoors as the floral foam can get messy.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

Photo credit: http://pinterest.com/pin/343258802819169275/

This book inspired activity is great for kids of all ages but toddlers will gain the most from it. The fine motor muscles of your toddler/preschoolers fingers and hands will get a work out poking the grapes onto a skewer, squishing cream cheese out of a piping bag, and poking mini-chocolate chips for the eyes onto these critters. Be sure to use the whipped cream cheese and a homemade piping bag (from a ziplock sandwich bag and zip the top closed) for maximum success. Remember perfection isn’t necessary here because these caterpillars will be delicious no matter what they look like AND lots of fun too!

The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks

Photo Credit: http://pinterest.com/pin/343258802819221851

This book inspired activity is great for older elementary kids from 8-11 years old. Using popsicle sticks soaked in water, dental floss, a moderately sharp cutting tool (AND a little help from parents here), and Q-tips as arrows your kids can make a really cool bow and arrow set. Click on the picture to follow the link to Pinterest for full directions. My kids LOVED using these and even set up a mini target for aiming their bows and arrows.

I hope that this post has inspired you to read with your kids and to get them creating some book inspired activities. I would love to hear about the great things you come up with!

My daughter is doing her Kitchen Chemistry while I get dinner prepared!

When I was a kid I loved going into the bathroom (of all places) and mixing products together like a scientist. My sister and I would use dixie cups from the bathroom and mix toothpaste, baby powder, water, baby oil, lotion—anything we could get our hands on—in those cups to make potions.

Guess what? My sister is a scientist for a pharmaceutical company today, and I love cooking in the kitchen! So what does that mean? You have probably heard this a million times but I am here to repeat it to you….playing is work for kids. Kids really need to mix, explore, and get their hands dirty every day! AND when they do, you will see magic happen. My six year old is using words like ‘dissolve’, ‘solution’, and ‘incorporate’ as she mixes random ingredients from our pantry closet.

To get them started just start saving things that you won’t need anymore. Ingredients from a recipe that didn’t work out and you will never try again. Or give them inexpensive ingredients like flour, salt, and sugar to work with. Save these ingredients in a special cabinet or drawer that they can access when they want to do kitchen mixing. (We call it mixing without tasting.) I even bought my kids special measuring cups and spoons for this activity, but you don’t have to. Just make a rule that they have to ask you for the stuff they can use (to make sure they don’t use every measuring cup you have while you are trying to bake a cake!)

This is me—cooking dinner while my daughter is doing her kitchen mixing! (She took the picture!)

Not only is this a great activity to keep them busy while you are cooking, but it is also a great way to get them thinking about science, cooking, language, and math. I give my children measuring spoons and cups and pieces of paper and pencils to write down their recipes. Anything they can practice as a child may become a career later in life. So get your children playing—-I mean working!

Clean up is part of the game!

Plus the clean up is also a part of the activity. They pretend they are real parents cleaning up the kitchen. My kids LOVE this activity and can do it for at least an hour. Definitely enough time for me to get dinner prepared and my work space cleaned up! Yay! What can you do with an hour of time?!