creative jar

it seems the most common phrase i hear lately is, "mom, what can i do?" or "i'm bored!". although the easiest solution at times is to let them play on the computer, watch tv or play video games, dave and i have felt compelled not to let them fill their free time with too much of any of that and help them pursue other creative ideas. in theory, this sounds like a great idea, right? however, the execution is much more difficult when the question, "can i watch tv?" comes when i'm in the middle of making dinner and i can't come up with a creative idea to save my life.

my solution has come in a creative jar. dave and i spent an evening this past week coming up with 20 or so different creative ideas and put them on little slips of paper and then inside a glass jar, which now sits on our kitchen counter. the only rule to the creative jar is that if you pull it you have to do it. we promised the kids there are only fun/creative tasks nothing like cleaning the toilet.

the kids are so excited about our new game and couldn't wait to dig-in to the jar and pull their first slip. here is a snapshot of what each of them created. caleb had to create a recipe he would like to make and write/draw it out. you may not be able to see it clearly in the photo, but he made up "caleb's kung pow serano dish". lilly's slip required she make a picture only using hole punches. because she became really overwhelmed by the idea of gluing down a million tiny circles i decided to let her use any of the larger punches i had. she made a house. luke's creative pull was to make a time capsule and map. i forgot to take a picture of his actual time capsule before he buried it in the backyard. but, i did get a shot of his map, which says, "open on march 6th, 2016".

i know we are going to go through this jar rather quickly - and it took us a long time to come up with ideas we did. i would love any suggestions you might have!