Looking for something free and (relatively) easy to entertain and inspire your kids for the March Break?
My darling Frannie (who turned 7 yesterday) had been asking me about rearranging the furniture in her room, so one day last week before she got home, I took it upon myself to do so. The girls’ rooms are fairly small (10 x 12) so there aren’t that many options.
One piece of furniture had to go, so I (tentatively) peeked inside my hope-chest-turned-toybox and was relieved to see that Frannie was only storing a few items in it, which could easily fit in the unused under-bed drawers. (The hope chest is now in my bedroom, as I ponder what to do with it. I know some people shudder at the thought of painting natural wood – especially a beautiful item that my Dad lovingly made for me – but painted wood is all the rage now…okay, I digress.)
So when Frannie arrived home, I told her I had a surprise for her, led her to her room…and based on her reaction, you would think that Santa Claus had come. Her eyes lit up and got really wide, and she threw her arms around me, thanking me profusely (days later, she’s still thanking me). I’m telling you, there wasn’t a single new item in the room, and I had even left a pile of junk for her to sort sitting on her bed, but for some reason she was just thrilled, and has been super excited to play in her room ever since.
Here’s a before and after of the incredibly dramatic transformation:
Seriously, that was it. Then, of course, Maggie was terribly disappointed (those of you who know her and think she is always smiling would be very disheartened to know what she looks – and sounds – like when terribly disappointed) and we quickly did her room too.
It’s a great chance to freshen things up (and do a little Spring dusting/vacuuming behind the furniture) and if my kids are any indication, inspires them to purge unneeded items and rediscover their old favourites.
Let me know if this works for you!
In staying congruent with my "not type-A personality", I allow (or do not fuss too much when) my 9 year old Evelyn rearranges her room…about once a week. She shares with her 2 year old brother and the poor little guy has had to get used to sleeping with his bed every way but sideways. I have not redone this room since Evelyn was a baby, when I painted it with a really cool giraffe, birds, and grass to match her crib set. Needless to say the paint is ready to be freshened up. Part of my apprehension is that she can be really creative and I try to allow her to 'go with' her ideas but with painting…it is a bit more permanent and so far we have gone through about five different 'for sure' theme ideas. I think I might pick a colour and allow some stickers to be applied to the walls…then she can move them around and change them up when in the mood to do so. However, I keep putting it off because I did redo my boys' room 2 years ago with really dark paint and cool massive dinosaurs painted all over the walls (when I say massive, I mean eight feet long and four feet high brachiosaurus). Then I installed shelves on either side of their queen bed they share and added matching cork boards, mirrors, blinds…I thought I was awesome finishing a room up fully- the first one in the whole house. It was about six months later when the confessions of 'I don't like the dinosaurs Mommy, they are scary', and 'dinosaurs are kind of little kid things Mommy'…now we have posters of race cars covering dinosaur heads and frequent requests to rearrange furniture (but can't because of my oh-so-smart floating shelves). I think I am going to need to bite the bullet soon (maybe in August or September) and redo both kids' rooms, so I don't want to get into a major project like this until I am good and ready to deal with the mess!!!
Must be Spring fever – We just got home from Walmart with two bins for stuffies and a bin for books for the boys. They're upstairs as I write this getting "organized"
Next I'm going to purge – I just need to send them away for a few hours first!