My children love treasures. They love finding them. They love collecting them. They love scattering them all over the carpet.
They love their treasures more if they believe said treasures are of importance to the adults in the household.
So we deliberately create Treasure Troves for the children. And this is why our children are the happiest on the block.
- The drawer in the stand that holds the Receipt Basket holds postcards, old cell phones, and a pair of toddler sunglasses.
- The basket next to the television holds between 8 and 234,986 remotes. (Only one of which is usable.)
- The end table next to the couch holds a nifty little basket of coasters.
- The lower drawer in our nightstand has an old Gameboy and a working flashlight.
We could be anal neat freaks and insist that the postcards stay IN THE DRAWER. The remotes stay IN THE BASKET. And the coasters do not belong ALL OVER THE FLOOR.
But, in my experience, children are happiest when allowed to explore and make messes. And, in my experience, mommies are happier when their babies are happy. Let’s do the math: 10 minutes scattering postcards + 2 minutes modeling sunglasses + 5 minutes “talking” on cell phones + 5 minutes climbing the chair next to the remote basket to take them out one at a time to examine and drop + 3 minutes throwing coasters like frisbees + 5 minutes “playing” Super Mario Brothers = 30 minutes of Treasure Induced Child Euphoria (TICE). Subtract the 5 minute clean up, and that’s a good quality 25 minutes of peace. Read, blog, read blogs… or just do the dishes without a 12 month old trying to climb in and carry off the dirty pizza cutter.
AND (wait there’s more!) I’ve found that when certain areas are designated as “Yes!” areas for children to pick apart, the “No!” areas are all but forgotten. I mean, who wants to stick forks in a surge protector when you could be playing Super Mario while talking on a cell phone and skipping coasters across the floor?
Oh, and note that none of the treasures have the Fisher Price logo? We have spent entirely too much on toys the past three years.
Has anybody else out there planted Treasure Troves in their house?
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Be sure to come back tomorrow for Recipe Swap: Toddlers – What do they eat?!
My 1 yr. old loves to open drawers and pull out whatever is in them. So, in the living room, he has one big drawer in the entertainment center which is filled with his toys. I also let him open the drawer to the end table and pull out the coasters and remotes to play with. I figure, it’s not hurting anything. I also have baskets of toys strategically placed around the room for him to get into. He stays occupied for hours!!
We’ve made sure to make all the drawers in the kitchen reachable by the 1- and 2-year-olds that visit us to be “kid-friendly”. One little boy makes a beeline for the tupperware drawer when he comes over, followed by the cookie-sheet drawer.
Not intentionally but now that I think about it we did. 🙂 Our kids are older now but when they were little they were allowed into all the “safe” things and made lots of messes.
We have some.
In the kitchen, he actually can’t open anything except the drawers where all the plastic ware and gadgets like turkey basters and bag clips are kept. Completely safe, but extremely interesting.
In the office there is one whole cabinet of drawers filled with old cell phones, empty scotch tape rolls, and assorted harmless junk that fascinates him.
The living room, we’re working on it. We need to put doors up to cover the vcr he likes to “fill” and the dvd player that he and the hound have now broken by playing with. The only other cabinet option are some antique endtables that I’m not so sure I want him touching and the dogs toybox. Maybe we need an ottoman that opens up.
We do this as well. There are a few areas that my 2 year old likes to get into, so instead of constantly saying no, no no… we just filled those areas with kid-safe stuff.
Also, when she wakes up from her nap, she likes to explore in mommy & daddy’s bedroom. She sometimes gets into deodorant (painting her body with it), paper tablets (ripping off each page and scattering them around), and baby wipes (empties the ENTIRE container).
Sooo…. we started leaving out kid-friendly things that would distract her…. mostly stickers!
When I was little, my mom had a whole cupboard filled with plastic dishes and Tupperware containers that she let my sister and I empty and crawl into. We loved good hiding places!
I had drawers in my kitchen filled with safe fun stuff for my boys when they were younger. I even kept one cupboard open so they could get kid friendly snacks.
When they out grew this need I kept it in place for my neices and nephews that came to visit. One of my neices LOVED raisins and knew I always kept a small container just for her in this safe cupboard. She would come through the door and get her raisins and then we could take off her coat and boots.
They love having these “yes” places.
I love the “yes” places. I need to make sure we have enough of those places.
Thanks!
This is an adorable idea and one I need to remember for later!
When I was a toddler, I got into Grandma’s can cupboard and removed all of the cans’ identifying labels so that she didn’t know what she was having for dinner for months!