Whenever I hit on something that captures the imaginations of both my 6-year-old and my 10-year-old, it's like I've struck gold. And today I'm sharing that gold with you!
School holidays have just ended, and unfortunately almost every day of them involved what felt like hours of squabbling between K and R, to the point that I thought there must be something seriously wrong with my parenting (which there may well be)... BUT then I remembered that I'd been saving toilet rolls and cardboard rolls for months so we could make marble runs. And this turned out to be the best holiday activity ever.
Some giant sheets of cardboard (found in the shed, left over from our cardboard Christmas tree), my carefully hoarded cardboard tubes and a roll of masking tape resulted in a happy and productive morning. Marble runs provide a lot of opportunities for problem-solving: the marbles get stuck, they fly out at the wrong spot, they fail to do what you expect them to. But because the whole construction is held together with masking tape, it's easy to alter things, experiment, try again til you get it right. Educational and fun - so perhaps I'm not such a crappy parent after all.
K and R are so proud of their marble runs, and so am I. I'm also proud of myself for thinking up an activity that was so engaging they forgot to fight. Hooray for marble runs!
I love these! My son Joe has a deep and abiding love for marble runs, which he has had since he was 3 (he's now 5, so you know, half a lifetime). In addition to having several marble run sets that he uses, he enjoys watching marble run videos on Youtube (there are tons, no kidding) and announcing occasionally, with great affection, "Mama, I *still* love marble runs." Yes, honey, I think it's great!
ReplyDeleteSo anyway, we totally need to do this! If he saw this picture, he would be deeply appreciative. Plus, I think it looks like fun too.
P.S. My kids, aged 2 and 5, already spend most of their days squabbling. It's so annoying.
I too have watched those YouTube clips and it's amazing how many marble-run enthusiasts there are in the world! Start saving your toilet rolls now, and in a few months you'll have enough for Joe to make a nice big one of his own. It's heaps of fun - I was tempted to make my own one, but didn't want to be a drain on the limited resources available...
DeleteThere is the slightly problematic issue of what to do with two gigantic marble runs, but it's a small price to pay for a couple of squabble-free hours!
Awesome! You know you're doing a fantastic job, cause your solution wasn't to play endless DVDs for the whole holidays.
ReplyDeleteMy kids would both love this too.
Nah, I'm not that great - I would have chosen the DVD option if only they could agree on what to watch :)
DeleteWhat? They even forgot to fight? Must have been a complete success ;)
ReplyDeleteOh yes, it was great. Still, I'm glad the holidays are over! R is taking hers to school tomorrow to show it off to the class :)
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