Simple Hobby Homesteading

All righty… I’m excited to get going on this gift series just in time for everyone to get to work making instead of buying gifts for friends, family, coworkers, and complete strangers!

In a time of electronic everything (even toothbrushes!) you might dismiss the immense fun and learning potential in the simple things. Before you order that iPad for your four year old take a minute to try a simpler approach. I’m starting out crazy easy and you may kick yourself in the booty because you didn’t think of this yourself (let me hear it if you already have thought of this idea!)…

What do you need:

* Boxes (I’m working on a set of all the same size… Keurig boxes make solid blocks. Small priority mail boxes are another good option Feel free to do all sorts of shapes and sizes)

* Duct tape (duck tape… however you say it!). Plain, patterned, whatever ya want!

* Scotch tape (optional)… I like to tape the Keurig box flap shut to provide stability

* Scissors (optional) if you are not a fan of tearing duct tape.

Make your own building blocks with boxes and duct tape! I’m making a whole set of basic building blocks from empty Keurig boxes (I drink A LOT of coffee) for a friend’s kids’ Christmas present. I’m hoping to have 20 or 30 by Christmas and I’ll wrap them in the biggest box I can find (further fun playing in the box!).

To make this gift even better there are A TON of choices in the duct tape department these days and they are quite inexpensive ($3.37 for 10 feet of patterned duct tape at Wal-Mart… I bet you can find cheaper… let me know if you do!) and one roll is enough to cover at least 12 Keurig boxes.

You can use any size boxes to make these blocks and with the duct tape they are actually incredibly durable. Ooh, and if you are one of those perfectionists I want to hear how long it took you to line up all the patterns perfectly. I tried on the first couple boxes but by the 7th I really didn’t think the kids would notice if an owl had three eyes or half a head.

So why building blocks? Well, I finished up my Bachelor’s Degree in Child & Family Development a few years ago and one of my final papers was a persuasive thesis on bringing back the old school forms of play instead of bombarding our kids with constant technology. It was a blast to be able to research all things play for three whole weeks! Legos, building blocks, sticks and stones, mud pies, blanket forts, Lincoln Logs… I’m tellin’ ya I felt it was my duty to really become one with the play… really immerse myself and even pull my boys in (teenager and teenager wannabe). All research that I found showed that activities, like building with blocks, encourages key development in a child’s brain and body that technology based toys and activities can’t even begin to accomplish.

Construction toys, such as building blocks, are ideally suited to encourage children to develop language skills, social skills, capacity for divergent and creative thinking, spatial skills, motor skills and hand-eye coordination (Parenting Science, 2014).

I do believe this is my shortest blog post ever, way to go me!

Go forth and give!

~Jhenna