April vacation is coming soon and with it are vacations, stay-cations and more. But what if you are not going anywhere. When you are not going on vacation or hanging out somewhere fun you are going to be facing some bored kids. Questions of “What are we going to do today?” or whining statements of “There’s nothing to do!”. This can make a one week school break a very difficult undertaking. So, you will need to have a plan to keep the kids entertained and active. That plan does not have to solely involve screen time. Some is good but there is so much to do with this time off. I’ve compiled a list of a few things that we do in our house to make these days fun for the kids.
In my house there is a term that the kids know, it is “Daddy Clean”. This means that things are cleaned up the way that Daddy wants them cleaned up. Most of the time this has to do with the living room. Our living room has the couch area where we relax and enjoy the TV. Allison knits on her side and I either play video games or work on blog posts on my side.
Then there is the side of the couch beyond my side that is the kids’ play area. We have Allison’s play kitchen that her mom had made for her when she was a kid. In it go all the Melissa and Doug play food pieces. Directly opposite that is a standing set of bins that each have their own type of toys and toy pieces. There are Hot Wheels, PlaySkool Heroes, Half-Shell Heroes, Rescue Bots and more. Along the wall are all the larger items like play sets and our over sized Robots in Disguise talking Bumblebee. Right next to the couch is a bookcase on its side with fabric bins that hold many of the miscellaneous toys that don’t really fit a specific category like McDonald’s toys and things like that. The middle of the entertainment center holds our Hess Toy Truck collection and in one cabinet of the entertainment center there are puzzles and more.
When things in the house are “Daddy Clean” it means that everything has been cleared out from under the couch and loveseat. Every single toy has been put back into its respective bin, drawer or shelf. The room is vacuumed and then all is right with the world… for about 2 days or less. Continue reading Keeping the Toys Organized→
