2015 has been the year of minimalism. I know we're not the only family to embrace the less is more phenomenon, and I love that it's becoming a trend! Aside from the kid's capsule wardrobes and limiting their toys (we'll see how that goes after Christmas, eeeeeek) I recently went to town on their craft supplies. I love doing crafts with them, but their supplies were out of hand.
As I was looking through their many colouring books, I realized that after years of owning some of them, they were hardly used! If anything, the kids would use them to cut strips of paper with their little scissors, but not much for actual colouring. And I got to thinking, isn't the very concept of colouring books hindering their creativity?
So I threw out all of their colouring books and ready-made crafts and only kept a few things:
blank paper, some markers, pencil crayons, pens (their favourite!), and tactile things like feathers, buttons, pom poms, pipe cleaners, glue, scissors, and tape. We paint occasionally and I'd like to get some big water colours like these.
Game. Changer. Now they want to colour every day! And they're entertained by colouring for much longer than they ever were with colouring books! 500 sheets of printer paper is around $5, so it's probably cheaper than colouring books, too.
While I'm making dinner they always want a show, and usually I oblige, but now they colour for around 45 minutes at the kitchen island while I'm cooking. It's amazing! Simplicity wins again :)
As I was looking through their many colouring books, I realized that after years of owning some of them, they were hardly used! If anything, the kids would use them to cut strips of paper with their little scissors, but not much for actual colouring. And I got to thinking, isn't the very concept of colouring books hindering their creativity?
So I threw out all of their colouring books and ready-made crafts and only kept a few things:
blank paper, some markers, pencil crayons, pens (their favourite!), and tactile things like feathers, buttons, pom poms, pipe cleaners, glue, scissors, and tape. We paint occasionally and I'd like to get some big water colours like these.
Game. Changer. Now they want to colour every day! And they're entertained by colouring for much longer than they ever were with colouring books! 500 sheets of printer paper is around $5, so it's probably cheaper than colouring books, too.
While I'm making dinner they always want a show, and usually I oblige, but now they colour for around 45 minutes at the kitchen island while I'm cooking. It's amazing! Simplicity wins again :)
We have a drawer in our kitchen that is literally a mess of paper, crayons, markers and pencils. The kids know it's theirs and have free reign to everything in that drawer and they LOVE it! They like to be where I am, so it works awesome that it's in the kitchen (there's also a table and linoleum so they can't colour any fabric). Growing up my mom always had lots of stuff to foster creativity and I always said it was something I would do too!!
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