Great idea for surviving rainy days with kids...

As of now, at 10:30pm, it has been raining non-stop for 24 hours. I do not like to get out of my house when it is raining, but nevertheless, we had to venture out, twice. My hair has the kinked-from-rain-syndrome. My tights have been wet twice and dried twice. Baby, it's yucky outside.

My children have played outside everyday this week up until today. I'm talking, hours, they have played outside. Our garden plot is now called the Sahara Desert by the kids. That's where they have been for most of the daytime hours.

Then, today. We wake up with the rain pouring. The Sahara meets the mighty Mississippi. Gloom, despair, and agony on me. Deep, dark, depression...you know the tune. Kids have to stay inside. Kids are affected anyways, just from the rain. I'll never understand it. Raining days=Rowdy kids. My kids are no exception. Not at all.

They started out playing Hide and Seek which got old after >2 minutes. Poor Evan had to 'count' everytime and he got tired of that. (Sibling abuse, I tell ya.) The running down the hall started. Getting hurt ensued.

Next, the breakfast questions came flooding like the current state of the Tombigbee. They wanted cereal, but not that kind. Okay, so one wants it. The rest wants grilled cheese. Never mind. Two want cereal and grilled cheese. FYI, I normally don't let them choose, but I was out of eggs AND had enough cereal for approx. 2 bowlfuls, so I thought I'd let them choose. Brilliant idea, that one. So, we survived breakfast. Barely.

Next, begins a time in my day when I have to get them busy. Chaos isn't an option. The baby has to go to sleep and that means "Quietness must Reign", to quote my husband. I began to think. I usually do Table Activities during Rainy days, or Days-When-I'm-About-to-Go-Crazy-Cuz-the-kids-are-running-wild. I make them sit at the table and play with Play-doh, do Puzzles, Draw, or play with blocks. An idea began to form in my mind.

I remembered when I was a teacher, we would do 'Centers'. We had a different play area set-up, and the kids would rotate areas every 15 minutes. They loved this. So...I decided, why not do something like this with my Housebound Lovelies?

I haven't confessed this, lest you think I'm unorganized or something (as if..), but my kids' room needs immediate attention in the organization department. We have containers filled with various, random (yes, I know those words mean the same thing, but I need more emphasis, yk?) mismatched toys, like you've never seen. Okay, you probably have. Anyway, the container that says, "Polly Pockets" on the outside, will probably have 3 horses, 4 blocks, 2 dollhouse furnitures, 4 Hot Wheels cars, and a leftover raisin. Okay, maybe not the raisin. So, I thought, why not give them each a container-full-of various-random-mismatched-toys and see what they can come up with! Then, in 15 minutes, we'll rotate.

Here's what happened (I'm sure you're so glad we're finally there...). Erin got the container that had about 5 Polly Pockets, a few horses, some blocks (which she put aside), a bowling pin (aside), and a few other knickknacks. She really had a great time. She wasn't ready to move when 15 minutes was up. Evan got a few animals, a kitty cage, a robot, and a couple more uninteresting items. I tried to 'set the stage' for him by pretending that the Robot was going to attack the animals, but he didn't really catch on. I don't know why. (coughs) Emory's container had lots of Jumbo Blocks, so he made something nifty, as always. When 15 minutes was up, he didn't want to move. He was scared Evan would tear up his 'building' and he did. Anyway, it was interesting to see what they made out of the random toys they had. Evan only played for about 5 minutes MAX with his stuff. Watching Mama rock the baby is more fun, for some strange reason.

So, I wanted to recommend to you a new way of um, handling the kids on rainy days. As I rocked the baby, I envisioned shelves of neatly stacked, clear containers filled with various, random, mismatched toys. On rainy days, I could pull out 3 random boxes for my kiddos to play. Then, at the end of the play session, we could dump all the toys out and regroup the VRM (various, random....) toys into a 'new' arrangement.

Or....I could organize the kids' room like I need to do. Okay, I am trying to put it off.
Bet you couldn't tell.