On Tuesday - officially known as Experiment Day around here - I gave the kids free rein over their "experiment ingredients". It's been a long week, actually two, for this flying solo mama. The house had got into such a state one couldn't walk across the floor so much mess was on it. My brain was about to implode if I had to endure another minute of wall to wall Lego, tiny pieces of snipped paper and crafty goodness, the up-ended dress ups basket strewn around the boys bedroom, Jenga block towers, every single cushion and pillow from the entire house piled up into a precarious lean-to cubby house in the centre of the kitchen...you get the idea. Mama needed to tidy up! Oh and yeah, my folks were on their way for a visit.
So with the need for these boys to be out from under my feet for an hour so I could get in and clean the pigs sty that had become our house I set them up outside on the deck, explained a few basic rules - don't get stuff in each other's faces,vinegar stings etc. - and left them to it.
They played with this stuff for TWO HOURS! Two hours people! I couldn't get them to sit in front of the telly for that long.
Bicarb, vinegar, corn flour, balloons, water, bottles, funnels, spoons and bowls...
Bubbling, fizzing, sloshing, mixing madness.
It was messy. They were completely engaged with it. Completely. We had a clean house afterwards, inside at least. (And outside after 2 minutes with the hose). Ahhhh, I could breath again.
2 hours! Lucky you, but next time put your feet up and relax instead of cleaning...
ReplyDeleteTwo hours!! That's brilliant! I might have to try that. The kids look like they had a fun time and I'm glad you got your house clean :-) That's what I call a win-win!
ReplyDeleteWoot! They looked like they had a blast!
ReplyDeleteWhat a clever mama you are. I'm so glad they enjoyed themselves! I think we need to do the same—free rein with the baking soda and the vinegar and 'speriments galore.
ReplyDeleteI hope you are getting through (or got through, by this time?) this solo-parenting thing okay. I've been in outer mongolia blog-wise and comments-wise recently, so I've come back to see you've been going hard at it, alone, and somehow finding time to blog and photograph the joy! You rock. Really. I am sending hugs and smiles.
ps we've totally been in your hood recently. Newtown has THE best vegan restaurants. I told my husband we have to go for coffee (and soy hot chocolates!) at Campos next time we come up. It was shut last time we were there (last Friday), but I pointed it out to my family and thought of you. :)