We gave the boys the basement family room as a huge bedroom/playroom. This has been a mixed blessing.
As you can see, they can quickly turn the entire space into a zone of total destruction (and you only see half the room in this picture.) It's a lot of work for me to clean it up, even with their "help."
As you can see, they can quickly turn the entire space into a zone of total destruction (and you only see half the room in this picture.) It's a lot of work for me to clean it up, even with their "help."
But! They have been playing more imaginatively and happily and in general have been more out of my hair since we moved here. They've really been getting into the huge bucket of Legos they got for Christmas (Did you know that Santa buys old Legos on ebay?) They have been making dozens and dozens of space ships. I think having the large space to move around and spread their things around frees up their creativity.
2 comments:
I know what you mean about kids being happier when they have more space to play. My kids have been amazingly peaceful for the last couple of days, playing with unit blocks, Chevron cars, and various other odds and ends, occupying the entire living room. (Well, the portions of it that aren't taken up by DD1's mattress and DD2's Pack'n'Play. We painted their room, and it STILL stinks.)
It's so good to see the kids play so much, and so easily together. My only trick is to make sure that I spend enough time with them each day, instead of just knitting on the sidelines. ;o)
Oh, and I find that a timer (with a reward at the end) really helps with cleanup. The kids are still having trouble understanding the dual-rule: you clean up the mess you make, but you also help when we've got a big mess; but it's getting better. Just make the kids' cleaning up a part of their daily routine, and it gets easier, I promise. ;o)
DEATH ZONE!!!!! MWAHAHAHA!!!!!!!
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