It’s our first year of ‘big boy’ school for the older kiddos which means a significantly earlier leave time in the morning. While they’ve already been waking up at the right time (between 6:45-7:00a) most mornings, we will no longer have these laid-back mornings where we don’t leave until 9:00a. Right now, they’re used to having time to play, leisurely eat their breakfast & then eventually get dressed. In this hour of being able to play with their toys, they can sometimes make a pretty decent mess. I don’t want to have to get them to clean things up in such a short amount of time. That doesn’t start off anyone’s day on the right foot.
My goal with these activity boxes is to simply keep them entertained, get their brains going for the day, and keep them from making a mess everywhere while I get breakfast ready for them. Basically, if they go into the playroom, I lose them. They get excited about their toys, start pulling things out & the focus is just gone. I find the more structured I keep the mornings, the smoother things run. I know it seems counter-intuitive, but I promise it works!
The other main reason I came up with this type of breakfast item is because I don’t want one more thing on my plate to prepare at night. You see all those ‘fancy’ moms on Instagram or Facebook setting up these elaborate activities the night before, so the kids can work on the activity in the morning. I don’t have that kind of time, nor do I want one extra thing on my to do list. I’m usually back on my computer working by 9:00pm so no thank you! Those moms are awesome & I’m glad their children love it (I’m totally not hating on them); but this mama ain’t about that right now.
I wanted to build each of their boxes to represent their current interests. So I grabbed a shoe-box sized bin with good clasps & started thinking about what to throw in there. My requirements in my head for the activities were:
- small enough to fit in the box
- not messy
- easy or quick to pick up
- keeps them entertained for approximately 5-10 minutes
I actually wound up finding everything around the house except for getting them some Hot Wheels cars (which are a new interest) and these PLUS PLUS block things (which got delivered about 2 hours after I took all of these photos LOL).
Here’s what wound up in our boxes:
Hunter
- Subscription magazines about animals
- Books
- PLUS PLUS blocks
- Mini legos
- Coloring play pack (from Target $1 section)
- Water Wow Coloring books
- Hot wheels cars
- Alphabet matching cards (from Target $1 section)
- ‘Opposites’ matching cards (from Target $1 section)
- Spanish flashcards
Gage
- Subscription magazines about animals
- Tons of puzzles (mostly from Dollar Tree)
- Coloring play pack
- Water Wow Coloring book
- Shapes puzzle
- Hot Wheels cars
- Alphabet letters
- Alphabet matching cards (from Target $1 section)
The great thing about this idea is that it’s totally customizable to your child, and I bet you have a box & small items lying around the house to create this breakfast box without even going to the store. And if not, hit up the Dollar Tree or Target $1 section. The Target $1 section is actually one of my favorite go-tos for finding cheap, easy educational stuff.
I think I’ll change the boxes out each quarter, so it keeps it fairly fresh & engaging for them. Our boys are also close in age & could totally swap boxes if they really wanted to. I will definitely have them share the Shapes Puzzle back and forth, since we only have one.
Other ideas I’ll add in the future are things like action figures, dinosaur figures, mini trains, change out the books, tools to build things, different puzzles, and different things to color.
Okay guys – I hope you find this idea useful & it helps make your back to school mornings just a little bit easier 🙂 And make sure you catch the video where I talk about our breakfast food bin, too! YAY for school!!!!
