This post is about how you can create a child friendly space in your kitchen and promote independence.
I have found myself just about to take a seat and then got those mummy spidey senses ringing, wondering to myself what is it? What am I not hearing? Then, all of a sudden the silence has been broken and I hear a loud crash of something (I am hoping isn't breakable) hitting our kitchen floor! I rush in to fix what I am hoping won't need an emergency room and find one of my (monkeys) children climbing the kitchen cupboards looking for a snack, or in Mr 14's case, (when he was around 5 or 6 years old) searching for a glass for a drink of water. I had to think of a solution here, and I did! If this story (of what was once my life) sounds familiar to you, then mum, this is for you!
Today, I want to share what I did to make our kitchen child friendly for my growing little monkeys. I wanted more convenience, no more fear of someone getting hurt climbing our pantry when I am busy or having broken cups, that are not as important, but still, I didn't want to be worrying about that as well. I also wanted to give our children a little more independence in our home. Umm, ..... and yep, you know it! I also wanted less mess and work for myself too. (Hehehe, insert my big smiling face here.)
So, what did I do?
Well, I came up with the idea of giving Mr 14 and his future siblings a cupboard in my kitchen. Okay, but what's in this miracle cupboard? I hear you ask. Well, it can be whatever you want. But to give you some ideas of what you can do (and because we have three children who like to get their own things out for themselves) I will tell you what we have in our kids cupboard.
This is what I started storing in our kids cupboard as the kids have grown. . . .
Breakfast cereals, in cereal containers, non breakable bowls and glasses, drink bottles, school lunch boxes and their snacks. Side note though, snacks have now been returned to their old spot, which is the top of our pantry. Lesson learnt for mum here. (they began sneaking into the cupboard and ate all their lunch and after school snacks.... grrr!)
But, that's not all because maybe you are like me and you know your child is still going to have things they may want and will still climb for. Then, maybe you do what I did. After I showed them their new cupboard, I began asking them if there is anything else they want to put in their cupboard. Remember the snacks.....maybe you don't do this one? But if you do, you can make up a basket/box that will have those things, but with a amount you are happy for them to have and replace things as needed.
This is something I have in our kids cupboard now. I have a box packed with Miss 5's art supplies. Mainly because she was always asking and climbing up furniture for them. She loves creating new things and drawing. I packed her box with copy paper, drawing books, colouring books and pages, pencils, a pencil sharpener, eraser, crayons, glue sticks, felts and a few craft pieces.
I also have a shelf and a 3 tier drawer in our hallway cupboard for our family boardgames, lego, play dough, play sand and other random activity stuff too. I did this for a few reasons, but mainly because we use them so often and I got sick of them being in different rooms all over the house. All up if I include our homeschool stuff, we have three areas of our house that I've made to make things easier for us to get things done. Whether it's breakfast, lunches, school lessons or doing family time activities. Everything is so much easier to get to now they are stored together and have a place to go back to.
Okay, so that's it boss mum's. What do you do to make things easier in your home for you and your family?
If you liked my post and found it useful, please let me know in the comments below.
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