Creative Thinking for Working at Home

Even though I have had my business out of my home for 16 out of the 19 years it has been in existence, I have never found it more difficult than in the past couple of years.

Early on it was easy because my first child was calm and placid, not to mention I had a nanny to help with the cleaning and child care. But now, all my kids are in school and peace should reign throughout the land. Right? Wrong!

My 5 year old gets out of school at 11:39, and enjoys a few hours at the YMCA until grandpa picks up him and his brother at 2 pm. Unfortunately, sending them over to grandma’s and grandpa’s doesn’t relieve me from destruption as they storm in and out. Did I mention my parents live here too? Then my teenager comes home starving, but only wanting sweets so I have to say “no” to everything. Don’t you just hate being the bad-guy all the time and saying “no” so many times in the day. “No, you cannot have ice cream for breakfast.” “No, you cannot hit your brother. I don’t care that he thinks it is funny right now.” “No you cannot climb in the compost pile and expect to be let back into the house without being hosed off.” “No No No No!”

So as summer looms upon us with only a little over 2 months to go, parents and grand-parents entrusted with the summer fun for these precious (but loud) miracles, need to find creative alternatives to stimulate, educate, and provide hours of fun so that we can have peace to work, breathe and not go nuts.

Here are a couple of resources I have found:

Sir Knight Mackenzie defeats the Skeleton Ninja

At Home Mom – Freelance Writer and Blogger, Genesis Davies shares her tips and experiences of working at home with small children. Click the link to read her top 15 Quick Activities. I think I have tried most of these with the exception of the silts and the circus. I figure there is enough clowning around under my big top to encourage more of it. I know mean mommy!

Associate Content - Keeping Kids Busy during the Summer by Michelle Knudson makes some suggestions as well.

While searching the internet, I also found this great little workbook of 101 Ways to Keep Kids Busy.

Some of My Ideas for Summer Fun:

Swimming/Water Play - this is a must for 3 active boys. My two little ones are on the swim team and practice 3 times a week. Once the season starts, they will have meets the other two days. When the weather warms up, nothing keeps them more entertained than the pool. Luckily I have my teenager and my dad who can watch them freeing me to work.

Webkins – In this age of computers and video games there is one site that I have found that my kids love and I approve of:  Webkinz.com. You go to the store and get a small stuffed animal. On the animal is a tag/code. This code allows you to adopt your pet online and becomes the kids online “persona”.

Webkins has great quality games from all ages but is best for 4 to 10. It allows them to play different games, is safe, and you can adjust the settings with parental controls.

Costume Fun – We do not do Halloween, so it great to have a box of costumes to stir the imagination. The kids will play for hours, making up pretend games and stories. Even my teenager gets into it. For inexpensive costumes, hit the garage sales. A few weekends ago we bought 4 plush, well made costumes of an elephant, Scooby Doo, Scrapy Doo, and a bumble bee for all of $5. My Dad picked up the Samurai, Ninja, and Skeleton costumes for a $1 each about 6 months ago. As crafters, whipping something up shouldn’t be difficult either. One of the photos has my Jacob and Jared dressed as Dalmatian puppies. I took some old stained white polo shirts and marked them with a sharpie. For the ears and tail, I cut the shape in black and white and stitched them together turning the seams in and finishing on a piece of elastic. For the tails, I made a tube with a tapered point and stuffed with batting. I didn’t even finish the end. I just left about 8 inches without batting and stuffed it into their pants. It took about an hour for the two.

My Little Pups on Costume Day for Church Camp

Church Camp - We are so lucky that our local church provides a Creation Day Camp for the entire month of July. Kids go 9 am to 12 pm, Monday through Thursday. They learn about the planets, science, plants, and animals as it pertains to creation. The price is affordable for almost anyone and it is a great safe environment where the kids learn and play.

Crafts – Crafts are big in my house, but the biggest problems they have are they need my supervision or if they are too easy, it doesn’t capture their attention longer than 5 minutes.

Exploring the Options:
Win a $25 Gift Certificate

What are some crafts or projects that you have done? I want to hear about some crafty ideas that the kids can use their creativity, have limited supervision/input/direction from me, and provide 30-60 minutes of fun. Be specfic so we can test it out and post the fun back on the blog. Please make sure that if you got the idea from someone else, you credit them. Crediting someone else will not affect your eligibility to win.

I will accept submissions until July 15. You can use the comments below to submit the idea. If you feel more comfortable use my contact me form. I will elaborate on the ideas in a later post (June/July) and show pictures of my kids trying the projects. All submissions will be placed in a drawing at the end of summer (August 1) to win a $25 gift certificate to my quilt store Grace Full Creations.

Make sure I have a way to reach you at least by email. You can register on the blog or via my quilting site.