Make Your Own Children's Museum

My kids love to visit children's museums. Our family favorites are Kohl's Children's Museum in suburban Chicago and the Discovery Center in Rockford. But those fun places are about an hour away from our house. When we have a chance to go to a museum, the kids spend most of their time in the imaginative play centers.  These are the areas set up to look like baby nurseries, kitchens, pizza parlors, grocery stores, and construction sites.  And really, there's not a lot to these sets ups.  They use kid-sized elements to replicate grown-up life.  With a little creativity, it's pretty easy to set up an imaginative play center at home.

Avery's favorite imaginative play at home is the baby hospital or pediatrician's office. We gather her baby dolls, baby blankets, baby bottles, bowls, spoons, wash cloths, Ace bandages, Q-tips, cotton balls, ice packs, heating pads, and a pretend doctor's kit. We lay out the blankets as hospital beds and put a baby on each bed. We also add clipboards and a phone for extra realism. We bathe the baby's and dress fake wounds. We take temperatures, blood pressures, check heartbeats, give shots and medicine. It's a lot of fun for a wintery morning.

We have done the same thing with a veterinarian's office, a grocery store, and a restaurant. It is especially fun to set this up after your kids go to bed and surprise them with it in the morning. It starts the day off in a fun way and gets their imaginations working early. I don't play with them the whole time, but I get them started and jump in from time to time to add new ideas. I might answer the phone and tell the "doctors" about new cases arriving. I might start cleaning a baby's cut and let the kids take over. I might examine a baby and notice a new injury or a fever. This helps kids come up with story ideas that they can use later on their own.

The pictures below show our most recenct baby hospital.  The kids in the photo are Avery, Grant, and our neighbor, Layla.  They all had a blast imagining and playing all morning.

Love is the Answer

Today I have John Lennon in my head. I keep hearing his words, "Love is the answer."  I'm sure he didn't have three unruly children in mind when he wrote that, but that's how I'm applying it.

For the past three weeks, I've had a hard time managing my kid chaos.  Avery, Grant, and Nate have been constantly fighting, arguing, crying, screaming, hitting, spitting, kicking, biting, and creating massive chaos at home, at the library, in the grocery store, in the car, at the park, and wherever else we have gone. I've been spinning in circles to comfort hurt feelings and break up brawls and quiet cruel words.

It's been a big bag o' frustration, and I'll admit, it was wearing on me. Big time. As one terrible day turned into an awful week and then two and then three, I started to dread getting out of bed in the morning. I tried to take control of the situation (see my Keep Your Hands to Yourself! post from last week), but nothing worked.

Finally, this morning, it came to me. A big, heaping dose of love was what this mess needed. And I was the one who was going to have to give it. From deep inside my tired, frustrated, at-wit's-end self, I was going to have to dredge up some sugar.

Kids react so much better to enthusiasm and praise than to scolding and punishing. I know this. I have seen it work. I try to parent that way. But let's face it, when the patience is all used up, it's hard to be positive and cheerful. I wanted to get in my minivan and drive straight out of town, not start a tickle fight or sing a happy song. Still, I knew happy, happy, joy, joy was the way to go. But how? How could I find it within me to give that love?  

The answer was simple. I needed divine intervention. The kind of love that was needed in this house was not going to come from me. It couldn't possibly. It had to come from God. So I sat down this morning and had desperate chat with Him. I asked him to fill me with his love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, and self-control. I asked him to help me see these kids through His eyes and hear them through His ears.

God answered my prayer. Right then and there.

When Nate came in cranky and clingy at 6:30 a.m., I saw a boy who missed his dad and wanted his mommy. I knew that he deserved the best comfort and care that I could give. Even though I was tired, I somehow sang Itsy Bitsy Spider with him in my silliest voice and made him laugh. Avery asked me to practice drawing Arthur with her, and in the midst of the morning's busiest time, I sat down and gave her my full attention. When Grant woke up, I saw that he wanted some of this special attention, too. I hugged him and called him my special boy and told him how much I loved him. I held his hand as we went into the kitchen for a sippy cup of milk.

These small gestures made all the difference. The tears and tantrums were replaced, at least for the morning, by happy faces and cheerful kids. Avery, Grant, and Nate were basking in the love that I was handing out like candy on Halloween. This love fest took energy and patience that I could not muster on my own. It took God stepping in and doing through me what I could not do without Him. I am amazed and thankful for His divine intervention. 

And I bet the kids are, too.

Keep Your Hands to Yourself!

Grant and Nate are having a hard time keeping their hands to themselves these days. Brawls break out over toys every few minutes. Grant grabs for the firetruck in Nate's hand. Nate clutches it to his stomach and spins away. Grant thumps Nate on the head and grabs for it again. Nate defends himself with a big shove. Grant falls backward but quickly picks himself up and runs at Nate like an angry rhino. He swipes Nate's cheek and draws blood.  Nate flops down on top of Grant and starts rolling. The firetruck is forgotten, but the hard feelings hang around.

That's why I was so exicted to run across the book Hands are Not for Hitting by Martine Agassi at the library. I read it to the kids almost every day during lunch this week. Then, I traced their hands and cut them out. I glued the wrists to a piece of construction paper so that the hands could still move. I wrote the rule "hands are not for hitting" at the top of the page. At the bottom, Avery helped me make a list of other things we can do with our hands, like clapping, waving, building, coloring, washing, etc. Some of these are from the book. After the project was finished, I hung it on the wall next to the table so we can talk about it every day.

Next week, I plan to have the kids make handprints on paper. I will then give them pictures cut out of magazines and catalogs and have them find things they would like to hold in their hands. I'll help them use glue sticks to glue the pictures onto the hands. This will be another reminder that hands are for many things, but not for hitting.

I'm not expecting this to stop every fight at our house, but I am hoping it will be another reminder for the boys to keep their hands to themselves!

Rock Hounds

My kiddos love to play with rocks. Grant can't walk past a rock without picking it up. Avery has a can of rocks, which she calls "treasures," in her room. Now Nate, the boy I babysit, has also fallen in love with rocks.

I discovered this during a desperate week. "Falling back" to standard time has been disastrous at our house. The kids are now waking up at 5:30 a.m. and running out of steam long before 9 a.m. The boys push, shove, and tackle each other all morning while Avery screams at them every time their wrestling gets close to her stuff. If I leave the living room to make toast or pour cups of milk, I am interrupted by loud thuds and bloodcurdling screams. It's been rough.

In a desperate attempt to try something new to break our bad cycle, I set out a tupperware container of river rocks yesterday morning. All three kids were captivated by the smooth stones. They sorted, piled, poured, and played quietly together for at least 10 minutes. It was so peaceful that I kept peeking into the living room to make sure they were all still breathing. And they were! They were also smiling, laughing, and working together.

So, today I headed out to Hobby Lobby to buy more of these magic rocks. My mom thought I was crazy to pay money for rocks, but I explained that these magic rocks are smooth and polished, which makes them better than ordinary backyard rocks. They are also clean. Plus, they were only $2.99 for a three-pound bag. I bought two bags and used 40%-off coupons to get an even better deal. In the Christmas section, I found miniature baking tongs for $1.99. I bought two pairs of these for picking up the rocks. This will help develop find motor skills, too.

Back at home, I poured the rocks into a plastic shoebox-sized container. I set out the tongs, an old muffin tin, plastic measuring cups, and a few tupperware containers. The boys were captivated for about 15 minutes, which is amazing for two-year-olds.  Then., naturally, they started throwing the rocks across the room and it was time to put the activity away. Rock-throwing aside, I think this will be great indoor fun this winter.