Measuring creativity

Once again the recycling box was getting a little full, so naturally I asked myself the question "What fun can we possibly have with these cardboard boxes?" Toss me a couple bottles of spray paint on a lazy Saturday and I had my answer.

MM is always "renewing" -- redoing, redecorating, moving all her junk around -- her room, and I suspect she carries the decorating gene that is sorely dormant in my makeup. So I figured, rightly, that if I said, "Hey, daughter, wanna make this box into a dollhouse room?" she would skip a heartbeat. In purples and reds she decorated the interior with hearts and bright slashes. From there it was a short step to deciding that her room needed curtains, furniture and a rug, and this was when I decided to make the project vaguely educational and incorporate measurement.

With a ruler she measured the windows and the floor, then cut fabric for the spaces. She made a cardboard bed and a "quilt" in the same manner. Meanwhile, V-Man was creating some sort of firehouse alien spaceship and ordered me to cut lots of secret entrances so the aliens could escape from the invading pirates.

When the rooms were finished they played for a while, but then Monday morning I was waiting with rulers, yardsticks and worksheets titled "My big house" and "My little house." The kids had to measure and compare the sizes of their little rooms and our living room, as well as the door and window heights. It led to a pretty good lesson on measurement, and afterward we walked around the house deciding what you would use to measure certain things -- a toothbrush, a bed, the refrigerator, a plate.



All in all, not a bad lesson to come out of a couple of empty boxes!