Quarantine Activity #835
Need a nap today? Or maybe just a quiet second. This activity could give you 3,600 quiet seconds. Enter - the wood scrap box.
Once upon a time, I saw a graphic designer friend create super cute cities with wooden blocks for her kids. She’s amazing. Her artsy skills put my stick men usual's in their rightful place.
However - I'm learning that the beautiful thing about kids is that stick men are their jam!
I can impress my kids with the most hideous of art and I go away feeling a *little* bit like superwoman ...
just as long as I don’t listen to the voice inside my head telling me I should have done better.
It’s pretty funny when my kids ask me to draw a princess because *let me tell you* my princess drawings can turn some heads. We’re talking the wrong kind of head turning though. It’s the - Why can’t I get her eyes to look right turn-your-head.
But guess what? Never fail, my kids squeal with delight, thank me, and then commission me to draw the prince to match. Go figure!
Here’s my point. Kids aren’t looking for perfection. I am. I trip over perfect every day. Thinking I have to have the perfect craft. The perfect quarantine activity. The perfect, clean lines.
But as I trip over perfect, I often fail to do anything at all.
I don’t have the perfect words, so I don’t type them. I don’t have the perfect song, so I don’t write it. I don’t have the perfect time-slot to get the job done, so I don’t do it. 5 minutes on Facebook is way easier than ONLY 5 minutes of a project.
Sound familiar? Maybe it’s just me. I see this happen when we share crafts that are out-of-the-question… (has anyone seen the cardboard igloo post flying around Facebook?) Maybe some of you have actually pulled that one off. PROPS to you. I’ve looked with wishing wonder MANY times at that post.
But my kids don’t need the perfectly geometrically shaped igloo. My kids just want the cardboard box and a pair of scissors to hack it apart. Sure the igloo looks better, but I can’t igloo most days.
Here’s what I can do. Get some random blocks from the garbage in the garage. Spend 2 seconds sanding the corners, and let my kids go for it! They had so.much.fun. Chloe said it was the best thing she did all day. And I? Took a nap. It was lovely.
So what perfect are you tripping over today? Let me encourage you to just go for it. Write it. Do it. Work it. Live it.
We only get to live today ONCE and then its done forever.
Let's not let perfect wreck it.
Oh - and the other upside to this quarantine activity? When you move your city and see permanent marker on the baseboard, then you have a ready-made activity for tomorrow! - Touching up the baseboards! Oops! :) If you’ve got littles, maybe try washable markers instead. ;)