cleaning things... them, not me

I’ve been so busy with the move that I’ve been scavenging for fun things to keep the kids busy for at least 10 minutes. These ideas can’t require lots of prep (I’m busy), a lot of supervision (I’m in the proximity, but distracted with packing), and should involve both a curious 2 year old and a bossy 4 year old. Here is a fun one that we’ve been doing this week, washing things. Here we are washing dirty shells. Give kids a big bucket of water and a few scrubbing brushing and off they go. We were occupied long enough for me to pack up the back porch.

This evening, Lou washed cars in the kitchen sink while I packed a little in the kitchen. He was a soggy mess afterward, but as luck would have it, it was bath time anyway. Last move, I had them draw with sidewalk chalk all over the outside of the garage trash barrels. Then they used the scrubber brushes and a bucket of water to clean them off. That was great fun and they repeated the process several times.