I found a great one to try and so yesterday I took the kids to the dollar store. The plan was to buy five small plastic bins and lots of little activities and toys to fill the bins, then I would label each tub with monday through friday so that Megan can have a "Relaxation Time" activity each day. (Relaxation time is my favorite, favorite time of the day and I would do anything to keep it going. The day it ends is the day I start taking to the bottle before noon, I swear to God).
The dollar store in Kirkland is suuuuuupppper yucky. I had never been there before and the minute we approached the door I knew I should probably rethink this whole thing. When I shop with both kids on my own ideally I like to have a cart with two seats. Costco, Target, Home Depot, Fred Meyer. All of these places are good for a double cart. If no double cart is available, I like a nice single cart for Finn and a prayer that Megan won't run around like a wild banshee destroying the store. I usually have mixed results with this. The dollar store in Kirkland was small and didn't have carts which meant I carried Finn and Megan carried the basket... for about three minutes.
It had soon devolved to both kids running around the cramped aisles grabbing every single tiny thing they could get their hands on and either throwing it, moving it to another place on the shelf or putting it in our basket. I needed to move quick. I found plastic bins, I found coloring books, colored pencils, magnifying glasses, pens, stamps, puzzles and squishy balls. In the nick of time we made it out of the store with minimal damage and brought our goodies home--all for about $35.
My intention was to fill the bins and stack them nicely in a closet with perfect little label maker labels denoting the days of the week. On Saturdays and Sundays Megan would get the choice of which bin she can use.
Things that didn't quite work: The lids don't really fit well. You get what you pay for and if I were to re-do this I would have gotten the cheap tupperware from the grocery store. Also, the coloring books don't fit in the bins so I can't close the lids anyway. No stacking neatly in the closet.
Things that were great: Megan loves the idea and she gets to have a fun new bin of activities each day. That way it won't get boring and she stays in her room. She even still slept after playing with her stuff.
All in all I think it's going to be a success!
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