How I Found Time to Read my Novel While the Kids Did Self-Portraits

The other day I was dying to read my book.  I hardly ever get to read while the kids are awake, but I was reading Gone Girl: A Novel, and I couldn't put it down.  So, when my daughter asked if she could do a "project" I knew I wanted to come up with something that would keep her busy for awhile so I could sneak in a few pages (Does that make me a bad Mom?  Too bad!  Haha)
So, I got out the long butcher paper (Spectra ArtKraft Duo-Finish 67004 Spectra Artkraft Duo-Finish Heavyweight Paper, 48" x 200-ft. roll, White) and I taped two long pieces to our kitchen floor.  I told the kids to lay down, and I traced them.

Then we started adding stuff.  I helped her draw a dress for her self-portrait.  Then she started adding the flowers to the dress and I have to say, that the more we drew, the more things she came up with to add.  By the end, her imagination really took over.  On her self-portrait, she drew:

• A face
• Hair
• A dress with flowers
• A necklace
• A purse
• She traced herself holding her favorite doll
• A "friendly ghost"
• The sun
• Shoes and socks
• The carpet she was standing on
• A grasshopper on her head (long story.  We had pet grasshoppers this summer)

Even Little Buddy had fun on his, although I did most of the work while he coached me.  The good news is that, after the project was over, they scampered off and played by themselves for thirty minutes, and then I finally got to read my book in peace!  It really is amazing how willing they are to play alone after we do a project.  They finally get the "Mommy" time they crave and they feel fulfilled, leaving me time for dishes, laundry, and more importantly, novels!  For more ideas on how to get more free time by providing your kids with challenging projects, check out my new book!  I teamed up with Susan Case, a former Kindergarten Teacher, and we provide you with hundreds of ways to keep your kids busy, but in productive ways, so that they are learning while you get your precious free time!

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Make a 3D town with trash from your house!

The other day I had to leave for work and Munchkin Girl was clinging to my legs and begging me not to leave.  Talk about kicking in the Mommy Guilt.  I worry all morning that they are at home, crying and feeling traumatized by my absence. Fortunately, when I walked in the door later that day, I realized that I should have stopped worrying minutes after I left my house because they had gotten along fine without me.  They spent the entire morning happily creating 3D town with their babysitter.




The town consisted of:

• 2 trees (made from green construction paper and a paper towel holder)
• A big house (made from a diaper box.  It's the one with the red roof)
• 3 stores (made from various boxes)
• A street where they drove cars
• A swingset and slide
• Several people, dogs, trains, etc

She took a bunch of old boxes from around the house, and took them to the garage.  They covered each box with a different color of paper and made each one into a different building and then decorated it.  She said this literally took the entire morning and they were happy and fully entertained for several hours, so if you're looking for something to do, this was a big hit!  My daughter (4) helped her make everything and Little Buddy (2) came over occasionally, but she also had the baby pool nearby so he went back and forth between the water and helping with the toy town.  Since they were in the garage, this worked really well.

The long box above is a Coke box, the big one is a diaper box, and the small two are cereal boxes. 

The details she did were amazing.  She wrapped a bunch of pieces of green paper together and taped them together.  Then they used scissors to cut a bunch of slits (great for fine motor) 



 They got to help decorate all of the houses.  They colored, they glued on stuff, they painted, they used stickers, all great fine motor and strength, not to mention concentration.



The finished product was quite a masterpiece. Now, I would never claim that I could do anything as creative as my wonderful baby-sitter.  She was born with a different creative geno-type than I was.  But if you're creative like her, you could consider using colored popsicle sticks to make a slide and a swingset.  For the swingset (below), she cut the tops off the sticks and then glued them to the horizontal one.  Then she wrapped some yarn around the top and looped it through a bead.  For the slide, she just cut up the sticks and glued them together. 


And for her final magic trick, she used a bunch of beads to make that little doll!  She used a pipe cleaner to hold them all together and glued a button to the bottom to make it stand up.  The hat is a small pink bead, the arms are beads, the face is a bead with a face drawn on.  WOW.  She is amazing.  And the kids adore their new little town, where they can play with their dolls and trucks, knowing that they helped to build it!







If you liked this post, you will LOVE my new book (which is currently ranked#10 on Amazon in the category of Motherhood!).  My co-author and former Kindergarten teacher, Susan Case, gives dozens of ideas on how to introduce letters in meaningful ways and we have an entire chapter on preparing your child for Kindergarten.  We worked together to give a Mom's point of view and a teacher's point of view, so that we could give you activities that not only keep the kids busy, but also keep them motivated to learn and develop their natural curiosity. 

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