dc craft room

In the three years of running my child care business in the house trailer at the front of our property there have been subtle changes.  Changes in seasons, changes in ages of kids that I accept, changes in decor, but truly one of the rooms has been transformed a couple of times.  It's the master bedroom of the house which is the biggest room other than the main play room.  At first I designated it as the nursery, obviously, for younger children or babies.  I have since decided that I prefer to have a different age group and realize how difficult daily life here can be when you add a baby to a few preschoolers.  So the room made a change when I took out the changing table and baby bed.

The room then sat in a sort of transition stage where the school age kids spent a little time.  I moved in some books, a bean bag, a table, and the tv/vcr combo for quiet time.  The room felt unused after a time.  Especially after I didn't have school age kids anymore.  So early 2014 I decided to make it our full time craft room.  We had more room and I could store supplies in there.  We used it a couple of times a week but still used the main eating table for projects too.  

This winter I decided to let it go... to give the kids the reign of the room so to speak.  I put in easy craft supplies, scissors, glue sticks, their journals and a gate on the door for privacy from the smaller ones who aren't quite ready to be turned loose.  I have two book shelves in the room.  One set of shelves houses puzzles, seasonal and educational games with numbers and letters, and the other set of shelves are the supplies.  I fill the baskets with cardboard tubes from paper towel and toilet paper rolls, styrofoam cups, cardboard, plastic bowls and even cereal boxes.  They have yarn, stickers and even their own roll of masking tape.  I have a good time coming across items, silently putting them on the shelves in the mornings and seeing what their minds come up with.  And boy do they ever come up with some stuff!  From airplanes to robots to thoughtful drawings, their minds are free to make whatever they can come up with in their craft room.  We still use it too for crafts that I come up with for them but on a daily basis.. it's their room.

BTW Our craft room does take donations!  We are getting low on scrap paper and are always looking for new, recycled supplies!

Talk about sparking creativity!  Check out this robot made with no help whatsoever from me.

I like this action shot of my kitchen helper.