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Several months ago I saw some simple rice boxes in blog land that functioned like a sand box, but used rice instead. It was the middle of January, and we were lucky to get above 10°, so an indoor rice box struck me as pure genius. I mean, rice particles are bigger than sand so surely it would be easier clean-up, right?
I filled it with rice, added dump trucks, funnels, measuring cups and a few buried treasures and excitedly told the kids to go to town. It wasn’t until I assembled the thing, let the kids dig around in it, and then vacuumed up enough rice to feed a third world country that I realized there might be a few drawbacks :)
I let them do this for a few days in a row before I decided “we” (meaning “I”) needed a break from our wondrous indoor rice box. I put it away in the deep dark storage room and we went back to other forms of winter entertainment-- like cartoons. Okay, so we did brain stimulating activities too, but I was really over the rice box.
Just the other day Parker asked about the rice box and I begrudgingly brought it out and let him have it in his room for quiet time on top of a sheet. Meredith woke up from her nap and discovered the joy of dumpling, pouring, sifting, and (of course) throwing rice. It was still a mess, but they stayed glued to that spot for almost TWO hours until Madelyn got home, at which time she joined in the fun too! Thanks to the sheet, we were able to dump the rice back into the box and I only had to vacuum up enough rice to feed a family of four this time.
Then it hit me—it’s 80°, they can take this thing outside! Now we’re all happy with the rice box. I’ve learned two things about the rice box:
1. To use one in the house you have to be a really laid back mom, and apparently I am not.
2. Lucky for my sanity, kids enjoy the novelty of digging around in rice outdoors just as much as they do indoors.
What other novel concepts do any of you have for entertaining kids?
4 comments:
A friend of mine has a rice box for her only daughter--age six--and I always assumed it was a great idea, or older kids. Maybe I'll have to give it a try--I'm laid back enough to not clean my house regularly, so maybe this will entertain the kids AND motivate me to vacuum!
What a fun idea! I imagine that you'll find rice for a long time! You are such a darling mother!
The science center close to our house has a really big rice table that my kids love playing in. Although I consider myself laidback about some things, the idea of stepping on rice all day is just not appealing (I'm pretty sure our vacuum wouldn't survive the ordeal). :) I do LOVE when something like this keeps the kids entertained for long amounts of time.
Peter's cousin has a blog: http://thriftycraftmama.blogspot.com/ and she shares quite a few ideas for keeping kids entertained. One of her recent ones - Line Art - has been a hit with my kids. You basically draw all kinds of squiggly lines with a black marker and then let your kids decorate or color it as they want to. I even think it's fun!
I'm envious that you even considered the rice box! I think my heart is racing just thinking of the mess it could cause! :o)
Great idea though, especially for a winter activity.
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