We all want a perfect Pinterest playroom—a beautiful, well-organized play space for our kids to create, laugh, and be happy. But not many parents can justify buying 12 rattan baskets, three shelving units, and a plush ottoman all in one day. And that’s ok.
Your kids don’t care about the dollar value of their playroom decor. They care about having fun and being kids. The good news is that you don’t have to compromise your aesthetic tastes to create a playroom that’s fun and affordable. Here are some great DIY playroom ideas that make room for kids creative activities at home.
Playroom decorating ideas that don’t cost a fortune
1. Repurpose jars and bottles
From pickle jars to tiny spice bottles, wash them out and keep them. Not only to they make great storage containers for craft supplies like pens, paints, and beads—they also give the room an attractive, eclectic look. You can even turn your jars into craft projects with paint, markers, stickers, and more!
2. Up-cycle shoe boxes
Did you know that you can turn a shoebox into a beautiful storage basket in about fifteen minutes with a hot glue gun, an old pillow case, and some wrapping paper or twine? The colors, patterns, and options are nearly endless—and all of them are cheaper than buying a rattan basket.
3. DIY shelving for small spaces
Nine times out of ten, a piece of MDF and some wall fasteners are going to be cheaper than buying shelves. And they’re not hard to install, either! If you don’t already have tools on hand (screws, a level, a screwdriver), a friend or family member probably does. Try using shelves to create more storage space. Try placing shelves at low heights as an alternative to a table. It’s a great way to make room for kids activities in a small space. You can even paint them to blend with your walls—that’ll make the room look bigger.
4. Make your own wall stencils
You don’t have to be an artist to use this easy alternative to expensive wall decals. Just draw your pattern (stars, leaves, whatever your kid likes) on a piece of card stock, cut it out with an exact-o knife, and paint over the stencil. For bigger wall art, like trees and mountains, try using painter’s tape to create the outline on the wall, then paint.
5. Make comfy sitting areas on the floor
Sure, floating egg chairs and overstuffed armchairs are pretty. But if you’re like most people, you already have extra pillows and blankets on hand in a linen closet. Use these to create a super comfy “nest” in a corner of your play area. It makes a great book nook or nap spot. You can even use spare sheets to create a little tent.
6. Paint a wall with chalkboard paint
Not only does a chalkboard wall look striking, it also allows kids to create on a whim and use a huge canvas. Kids love drawing on the walls, and so do adults! A can of chalkboard paint won’t break the piggy bank, and one can will be more than enough. Check out this post for more chalkboard wall ideas.
7. Shop craft supplies from your recycling bin
Looking for affordable activities for kids? Try saving your cardboard boxes, paper towel tubes, sheets of bubble wrap, and more. Paired with tape, paint, or markers, they’re the building blocks for an amazing fort, a pirate’s spyglass, and good old fashioned creative fun. Not only do recycled craft supplies save you money, they also give your child so many more opportunities to use their imagination and create their own craft ideas during playtime.
When you put love and effort into your kids room, it shows. Saving money is just icing on the cake of imaginative play, little giggles, and your child’s growing creativity. Making your own playroom decor? Share your great ideas with the hashtag #PlayRelay on Facebook or Instagram for a chance to be featured on our blog!
https://blog.relaypro.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/playroom_blog-1.jpg300695Victoria Senghttps://blog.relaypro.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/relay_blog.svgVictoria Seng2019-03-27 17:14:182021-04-02 11:19:457 Smart and Creative Playroom Ideas on a Budget
When we were kids, playing outside was as natural as breathing. We’d fill our after school hours with play, siblings, friends, and imagination. But things are a little different now. Our kids have more options than we did. And, more often than we’d like, they choose to spend the most beautiful months of the year indoors playing video games, tapping a tablet screen, or watching YouTube—or they would if we let them.
With the first day of spring just around the corner, it’s up to us to help our children carry on our playtime traditions. This spring, you can share you favorite childhood crafts and activities with your kids and get the whole neighborhood off their tablets and outside enjoying the gorgeous spring weather. Here are 50 unplugged and super fun outdoor activities and craft ideas to get you started.
Want to save this list for later? Click below for the free printable version. Frame it, cut it up and stick it in the bored box, or tack it to the fridge.
Whether running free in the neighborhood or making spring crafts with their siblings in the backyard, we love seeing our kids interact with the world around them and enjoy active play – especially when we know they’re safe. While some of these ideas are meant for the whole family, others are for kids to enjoy solo or with friends. Be sure to check out our tips for keeping kids safe and entertained during outdoor play with grab-and-go adventure packs.
Tell us in the comments: what games did you play when you were a kid? Do your kids play them, too?
https://blog.relaypro.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/relay_grass-1.jpg300695Victoria Senghttps://blog.relaypro.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/relay_blog.svgVictoria Seng2019-03-13 15:11:202021-04-02 11:20:1150 Fun and Creative Spring Activities for Kids
That was our springtime haiku—because the first day of spring is almost here! And it’s the perfect time for outdoor play, especially since you’re about to get an extra hour of daytime after school! (Thank you, daylight savings!)
And what better way to get your kid ready for outdoor adventures than making them a ready-to-roll adventure pack full of everything they need to have fun and stay safe in the neighborhood? No need to buy anything fancy, either. You can put this pack together using things you have around the house! Here’s what you’ll need:
Essential adventure kit supplies:
1. Small backpack (a drawstring one is fine)
2. Sunscreen
3. Bug Spray
4. Relay
5. Water Bottle
6. Snackies
7. Play kit of the day
You can keep the sunscreen and bug spray at home to apply before leaving if you want, but they’re good to have around to avoid sunburn and keep away pesky mosquitoes as the weather gets warmer. With the loop case, Relay can be clipped to their bag so it stays close when you need to reach them.
Play kit ideas for outdoor adventures
We love pretend play—it’s one of the most magical parts of being a kid! It’s easy to put together a few props to create different themed play kits. If you put the props in a gallon-sized bag, your kid can easily grab it and throw it in their adventure pack before dashing out the door. And you don’t have to break the piggy bank to put these kits together. For our imaginative kids, everyday objects and things you make yourself are amazing playtime props. Here are our top 3 favorite play kit ideas and everything you’ll need to make them.
The super-sneaky detective kit
A magnifying glass (a toy one is fine and less breakable!)
A notebook and pen for recording clues
Disguises, like sunglasses and a fake mustache
Evidence bottles (Try washing out small spice jars!)
Tweezers (for picking up evidence like a professional)
The adventurous outdoor exploration kit
Binoculars (real or made of cardboard tubes and tape)
Disposable camera for snapping fantastic nature shots
Bird, bug, or plant book (to identify the mysterious wildlife)
Explorer’s hat and vest (optional!)
A map of the terrain (your drawing skills are good enough, I promise!)
The notorious pirate kit
A trusty cutlass (a foam one will do. Or a stick. Or an empty roll of wrapping paper.)
Bandana or pirate hat (look for great sales after halloween!)
Spyglass (try painting the cardboard tube from an empty paper towel roll!)
Pirate Treasure (anything shiny, like plastic coins, tumbled stones, etc.)
A treasure map (Again, your drawing skills are more than enough!)
We hope your kids have a blast this spring! And remember, when you refer your first friend to Relay, you get our on-the-go bag for free, with a drawstring bag, water bottle, and Relay sweatband. Just some food for thought. 😉
So let us know in the comments: what pretend games do your kids like to play?
https://blog.relaypro.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Soccer_1_blog-1.jpg300695Victoria Senghttps://blog.relaypro.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/relay_blog.svgVictoria Seng2019-03-07 14:33:422021-04-02 11:20:19How to Make an Adventure Kit for Your Tiny Explorer
When it’s time to put the toys away, they go in a box. Maybe dolls go in a dollhouse or toy cars go in their toy parking garage, but each toy has a place to rest when it’s not being used—even if cleanup time happens a lot less often than we’d like. But what about our phones, tablets, e-readers, and other screens? Many find their homes on end tables, couch cushions, or even in bed with us as we try (and fail) to fall asleep. If you’ve ever had to pry a phone or tablet out of your protesting child’s fingers, you know what kind of powerful hold screens have on our kids. So why are we leaving them out in the open, constantly in view as a temptation for us and our kids? Well, they have to charge next to an outlet, simple as that.
So how do we get these screens out of sight so we can have fun spending time with family? We created an “out-of-sight” charging station for our screens. It’s a free and super fun craft project you and your kids can do together, using things you already have at home.
Here’s what you’ll need:
Shoe box large enough to fit all your screens (including mom and dad’s phones!) comfortably.
Covering of your choice (wrapping paper, newspaper, butcher paper, etc.)
Tape
Glue Stick
Scissors
Exacto Knife
Craft supplies of your choice (markers, paint, glitter, decorative tape, etc.)
Optional: Grommets (metal or rubber)
1. Recruit your little ones for shoe box crafts
This is where you can get your kids excited about designing a bedroom for your devices—tablets need sleep, too! If you want your box to match your decor or want to get crafty yourself with the outside of the box, your kids can still use markers to color the inside of the box, using their imaginations to decorate the place where the devices rest.
2. Wrap the box in the paper of your choice
This step involves scissors, so parents should take the lead.
First, cut two large pieces of paper and place them on your work surface. Take a glue stick and apply glue to the bottom of your box. Then place the box in the middle of your first sheet of paper.
Now remove the shoe box lid, apply glue to the top, and place it in the middle of your second sheet of paper. It’s important to wrap the box and lid separately so you can get your devices in and out later.
Wrap the shoe box and lid as you would gifts, applying glue to each side of the box as you go. Secure with tape or more glue.
3. Decorate the box!
There are no rules here. Let your family loose on the box — stickers, markers, and crayons in hand. Your box will turn out as unique as your own family. If you’d rather keep the outside plain or exercise your own creative muscles, your kids can still decorate the inside of the box.
4. Make room for the charging cables
On the back of your box, make small cutouts in your box with an exacto knife so that all charging cables can slide in without being seen from the front. Since this part is pointy, it should be done carefully by a grown up.
Optional: place grommets or tape in your cutouts for neat edges. Pro Tip: Make sure all your cables fit through the holes/grommets before securing them in place!
5. Drop in the devices
Feed the charging cables through the holes you cut and plug in your screens as you place them in the box. You might need a power strip nearby to plug everything in. You can use twist ties, decorative tape, or ribbon to keep your cords neat. Alternatively, you could store the power strip inside the box and have just one cord to worry about. Once everything is set up, pop the lid on the box. For the full “out of sight out of mind” experience, turn your devices off when they’re in the box.
And that’s it — play a board game or hang out in the back yard without worrying about losing to a machine in the fight for your kid’s attention. And get the most out of your family time by putting your own phone in the box, too.
Encouraging your kids to play screen-free doesn’t mean you have to send them back to the 80’s. We live in a time of innovation, where every product—from refrigerators to wristwatches— is upping its tech game, innovating, and making products easier and more fun to use. And outdoor toys aren’t stuck in the dark ages. Razor has been integrating technology into outdoor play for almost twenty years and, like Relay, is using their technology to promote active and adventurous childhood. Curious what they’re all about? We talked to Erin Bitar at Razor about their products and the impact they’re having on kids of all ages.
So what is Razor all about?
We know wheels. Since 2000, we have been reimagining the way we move with products designed for getting around town, having fun, and enjoying the outdoors. We first transformed the scooter and turned it into a global phenomenon called The Razor A Kick Scooter. Maybe you had one. Maybe your kids or grandkids do.
We have continued to invent all types of products on wheels – launching electric scooters in 2003, then electric skateboards, hoverboards, trikes, motorbikes, to name a few.
How does Razor use modern technology to encourage active play, and what sets high tech toys apart from the classics?
We are constantly innovating our products to encourage kids to leave their screens at home andget outside. Just like innovations in computers, telecommunications, and video games, we knew that outdoor toys needed an upgrade, too! We create technology that gets kids excited about getting active alongside their friends, siblings, and families and reimagines the way people get moving.
Razor has a long history of transforming products with innovative design and cutting-edge technology. We started by giving the scooter a much-needed redesign and proceeded to not only turn old favorites into cool new products, but create entirely new outdoor toys. Advancements in technology have not only opened up our imaginations to endless possibilities of products but also inspires the imaginations of customers to think about new ways to use and have fun with our products.
How does Razor encourage less screen time for kids, and why is outdoor play so important to begin with?
We design products that use technology kids intuitively understand and want to try out. Our products encourage open-ended play—they spark kids’ curiosity and creativity, both in understanding the tech behind the toy and using it in their outdoor adventures. When kids discover open-ended play fused with new and unique technology, it’s much easier for them to forget about screen media and get active.
There are many reported benefits of active play for children as it helps with their physical and mental, and social development. Kids learn through active play and it encourages them to interact and play with other children and observe the world around them. Ultimately, active play can help create a balanced and healthy lifestyle. When kids learn to play outside from early ages, they learn how much fun and rewarding it can be. These early experiences and habits can shape the way kids have fun and enjoy spending their time. When kids play outside, it can lead to an active lifestyle through adulthood.
Excited to bring free play into the modern age with your family with Relay?
https://blog.relaypro.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/turbojetts-1.jpg300695Victoria Senghttps://blog.relaypro.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/relay_blog.svgVictoria Seng2018-09-21 13:11:102021-04-02 11:22:52Can High Tech Toys Reduce Screen Time for Kids?
We created Relay as a tool to enable independent outdoor play for kids while preserving their safety and their parents’ peace of mind. In the summertime, kids are freer than ever and it’s the best time to let them loose to find summer fun. Relay isn’t a phone, and unlike a typical kid phone, Relay can stand up to many outdoor activities for kids—and the bumps, tosses, and splashes that come with them! Here to give us the ins and outs of unplugged summer fun, we asked social media director Mallory Martin from Prime Time Toys, makers of Poolside toys such as Sharkpedo and the ORIGINAL Max Liquidator™ to talk to us about the importance of outdoor play and how to get screen-bound tots outside and playing again.
Please introduce Prime Time Toys to us and tell us a little about yourself!
Since 1990, Prime Time Toys, Ltd. has been producing family fun pool toys for kids and innovative toys and games that can be enjoyed both in and out of the water. We have developed and expanded our line of water activities andpool accessories designed to give families hours of fun together. Prime Time Toys is dedicated to innovation and the development of original, safe and fun products.
What makes active outdoor play so important for kids?
Outdoor play promotes well-being and exercise. It allows kids to explore their environment, develop muscle coordination, and gain self-confidence. It also allows them to develop their social skills as they play with friends and neighbors. Providing fitness, experience, independence, and development, there’s really no replacement for outdoor play during childhood.
The pool is a staple of summer fun for kids. What do you think makes water, from backyard sprinklers to Olympic-size pools, so fun?
Most kids love water play, even babies! Sensory activities for toddlers are especially important as they grow and learn about the world around them. When they hear the splashes, see the bubbles, and maybe even taste the water, they’re not only having fun, they’re also gaining knowledge and experience that helps their brain develop. It’s a combination of learning and enjoyment! And you don’t need to dip your toddler in the pool if you’d rather play in the backyard—there are plenty of outdoor toys for toddlers, like outdoor sprinklers and other fun sensory games.
Sensory activities are important for older kids, too. And when you’re looking for things to do in the summer, poolside play, backyard water battles, and sprinkler sessions are high on the list. Not only are they fun, but you can’t enjoy them year-round depending on where you live. It makes them even more special.
A big part of summertime at the pool is playing with friends. How do Prime Time Toys enable social and active play?
Prime Time Toys the ultimate destination for pool toys and kids outdoor toys. We offer a variety of pool toys for all ages. Splash Bomb Diving Rings and Diving Sticks are both great tools for younger children to test and their swimming abilities and gain confidence in the water while having a great time together.
As well, Prime Time Toys created the ORIGINAL Max Liquidator™, and this summer we have a full line of these award-winning water blasters. Every water battle is different; they never get old! They’re full of opportunities for imaginative, brain-developing pretend play,friendly competition, and teamwork. And there’s a style made for every age group—toddlers, young kids, and even teens.
Do you think that summer fun has changed since you were a kid? Is it more difficult for kids to get active?
These days, I believe kids face more and more temptation to stay indoors, no matter the season. You just don’t see kids out riding bikes as much today as when I was a kid. A lot of it is because of the way technology has evolved. Kids now have a lot of play options that don’t involve the outdoors, pretend play, or even social interaction.
What advice do you have for parents whose kids want to spend their summer indoors glued to a screen?
Sometimes a great new outdoor toy, game, or activity can inspire kids to turn off the screen and play, especially in the summertime! If they are having trouble finding outdoor summer activities, you can give them some ideas. Pick up a couple Max Liquidator’s at your nearest Target and challenge your kids to the ultimate outdoor water battle!
https://blog.relaypro.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/PTT_tn-1.jpg300695Victoria Senghttps://blog.relaypro.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/relay_blog.svgVictoria Seng2018-07-03 17:21:052021-04-02 11:24:37Outdoor play advice from the summer fun expert
Looking to make a playroom decor statement and give your kid something fun to do on a rainy day? Get crafty with a bucket of chalkboard paint and transform the playroom or bedroom wall into a creative kid’s dream: their very own DIY chalkboard art wall. And as an added bonus, it provides all the vertical storage space you need for art supplies and inspirational materials—it even adds family ambiance to your home decor. You can supply decorations to provide a little bit of inspiration and make space to display finished artwork.
We love this idea because it not only looks amazing and is super simple to set up, but also because it is an amazing unstructured play resource. A great big chalkboard laden with fun arts and crafts supplies inspires kids to get off the iPad, the PS4, and actually create something. It’s big, full of potential for fun activities, and just screams “DRAW ON ME!” Here’s how to turn a wall in your home into a chalkboard craft station.
Painting a kids chalkboard wall
First, find your wall. It can be in your kid’s playroom, their bedroom, or even in a family area. Here’s what you’ll need before diving in.
Chalkboard paint
Painter’s Tape
A tarp or drop cloth
A paint roller and tray
A box of regular chalk
Step 1: Prep the wall
Start with a clean wall. Dirt, grime, and scuffs will make your chalkboard difficult to draw on. Once the wall is clean, run a drop cloth the entire length of the floor. This is especially important if you have carpet. Then, use painter’s tape to block off your baseboards. Taping the cloth to your baseboards will keep any rogue paint splatters from sneaking under your drop cloth. Then block off the ceiling and the ends of the walls with painters tape. You should end up with nice, straight lines.
Step 2: Paint the wall
Now you can start painting. Using a roller and tray, use “W” motions to coat the wall evenly in chalkboard paint. Most brands recommend 2-3 coats of paint, so this might take a while. Make sure to let each coat sit for 12-24 hours before painting over it.
Step 3: Prime the wall
After all the paint is on and all the coats are dry, you’ll need to prime the wall (with chalk, not wall primer!) If you’ve painted a large area of wall, you’ll need 5-6 pieces of regular white chalk. Just cover the entire wall with chalk dust by using the side of the chalk stick. Once the entire wall is covered, wipe it down with a dry paper towel. Think of it as rubbing chalk into the paint. If you skip priming the wall, you’re more likely to see ghosts of drawings past stick around after you try to erase them.
Decoration ideas for your chalkboard wall
So now you’ve got a blank chalkboard. Why stop there? Add utility and interest to your wall by putting in vertical storage and decor. Here’s what you’ll need:
Shelving (we used stick-on shelves)
Stick-on wall hooks
Twine
Clothespins
Picture frames
Tiny Buckets
Regular and colorful chalk
Markers and crayons
Construction paper
Any other art supplies you want!
Step 4: Set up your vertical storage
We only put one shelf on our chalkboard wall, but like all DIY projects, there are no rules or “right way” to do things. The more shelves you have, the more books and fun crafty things you can store. Whether you choose stick-on shelves or something more heavy-duty, place your shelves and attach them to the wall.
Shelves can hold books on drawing, origami, and other creative topics. They can hold construction paper, toys, and all sorts of materials. When kids have access to supplies and a huge canvas, they can stretch their creative muscles whenever inspiration strikes. And when they have a wide variety of creative materials and colors to choose from, they can keep trying new things. No two drawings are the same, and every new project will be a new adventure for your child.
When placing your shelf, (or shelves!) think about your child’s height and whether they’ll be able to reach their supplies. Paper, books, and less messy supplies can sit at easy reaching height. Depending on your child’s age and maturity level, you might decide to store paint, glue, and other messy supplies higher up so you can regulate when and where the mess happens. It’s worth keeping in mind that through your kid’s creative use of chairs and other furniture, this may not be a foolproof strategy.
Simple supplies like colorful chalk, crayons, and markers can be stored in the buckets, at easy grab-and-go height. We placed our buckets on wall hooks right below the shelf. The beauty of the buckets is in their portability. Maybe your child wants to draw with crayons in the kitchen, in the backyard. Their supplies are portable and super-easy to clean up and put away.
Step 5: Get decorative!
We segmented our wall into open space and smaller spaces by removing the glass from some thrift store picture frames, then hanging the frames on the wall. That way, the kids can draw big or small. The frames also allow kids to try different artistic ideas in different frames, learn to share their space with a sibling or friend, and even use the frames as part of their imaginative designs. They can draw pictures of themselves, of family, friends, pets, creatures, and all the places—real and imaginary—that they want to go.
The chalkboard doesn’t have to be chalk-only, either. You can tape your kid’s crayon drawings and finger paintings inside the picture frames or hang a length of twine or ribbon across the board to clip drawings, A+ report cards, and childhood photos on display. You can use clothespins to easily hang up your child’s creations.
Not only is this a simple and fun craft project for parents – kids will get years of creativity, fun, and joy from it. We hope your family has a great time with it!
https://blog.relaypro.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/chalkboard-thumbnail.jpg300695Victoria Senghttps://blog.relaypro.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/relay_blog.svgVictoria Seng2018-06-12 16:01:302021-04-02 11:25:09How to create a chalkboard wall for your kid’s room
In an effort to get our kids away from screens and into an unplugged play environment, it can be tempting to think about all the cute DIY projects we see online, the craft ideas, and other “boredom-busting” structured activities available today. But we underestimate our kids’ boundless creativity and innate imagination when we try to create the perfect playtime for them. We also rob them of the opportunity to exercise their imagination muscles by bringing their ideas to life on their own—and letting those ideas evolve day by day, moment by moment.
Take cardboard forts for example: when you look at some of the pristine builds you see online, their purposes are often very clear—it’s a little house, a spaceship, a mini-castle. And many of our kids don’t want to play space captain every single day. When kids build their own forts and have access to all the tools necessary, they have the power to create a chameleon, versatile fort that can be a castle one day, an evil science lab the next, often using common (and cheap!) DIY craft materials that you already have around the house.
Common items like cardboard, tape, and chalk are easy to find and budget-friendly—and tend to be easier for little hands to work with (bonus!) Sure, we caregivers can help along the way by providing supplies and using grown-up scissors and other tools when necessary, but when it comes to unplugged play, amazing things can happen when your child takes the reins.
If you’re wondering what you can do to enable your child to build his or her own playtime, take a look at some of our indoor DIY cardboard fort ideas for inspiration!
DIY cardboard fort must-haves for kids:
How to make a box fort: the building blocks
Big boxes, small boxes, they’re all fair game! Try saving your old shoe boxes, delivery packaging, and—if you can—the big boxes from furniture or appliances. These can either be repurposed by your creative kid or broken down and reshaped to make something brand new. Take our roof for example, where the corrugated texture of the cardboard makes a perfect “tin roof!” And don’t forget other cardboard products like paper towel and toilet paper rolls—they’re perfect for flower gardens, pirate-esque spy glasses, and anything else your kid can dream up.
So what’s keeping all this cardboard together? Tape. Tape creates a sturdy structure and lets your kid explore unique shapes, colors, and ideas while building. Playing with tape also lets kids learn experientially about physics—like when your roof gets too heavy and your kid improvises a cardboard “support pillar” to keep it standing!
So what kind of tape do you need? Duct tape works well for fort-building, but painters tape is a little less sticky, easier for little hands to work with, and good for quickly and easily switching things around for new fort designs and purposes. Your tot can also use colored tape for decoration on their cardboard props and the fort walls!
Craft supplies bring a box fort to life
Markers are the magic wands of fort-building—and they’re easy to clean up in case more than their fort gets marked up in the decoration process! Markers can turn a shoebox into a space-age control panel or a box of baby wipes into the chimney on top of your child’s masterpiece. Washable markers are the ultimate prop-builder—and props are everything when your kid is transforming their fort from secret super-spy HQ to grand castle.
Then there’s chalk. Chalk is one of the easiest no-mess ways for your child to decorate a fort. You can find large, colorful, less breakable sticks perfect for younger kids in most stores for pretty cheap. It might be worthwhile to invest in a can of chalkboard paint for cardboard fort walls—when your kid can go big with decorating his or her fort (and change it up on a whim) they will inevitably create amazing things. In a pinch, colored chalk will work on plain cardboard for easily changeable decor.
There’s a reason the blanket-and-pillow fort has been a staple of childhood play for decades. It’s useful and cozy! Blankets make good doors, makeshift walls, and floors for your kid’s fort. Pillows make great building blocks in a pinch and are the comfiest of captain’s chairs and thrones. Your kid can easily add imaginative details with cardboard and painter’s tape (and can easily remove them before bedtime!)
And if your child is going to spend a lot of time in his or her fort, it might as well be as bright as it is comfortable. String lights can provide endless patterns, orientations, and roles in building and play. In our fort, we have lights wound around a support pillar. But they can go anywhere, ceiling, floor, anywhere in the reach of the electrical outlet. Depending on your child’s age and maturity level, we recommend adult supervision around any electrical components.
There’s no wrong way to build a fort—your kid makes the rules. And when your child is the architect of his or her own play, even something as simple as a cardboard box can become a secret base, a space shuttle—anything a kid could imagine. The process of building something unique can provide infinite entertainment for kids (not to mention a brain-building engineering challenge!) Once built, new props and small additions and adjustments can create an entirely new play experience. And that’s truly magical.
Share your kid’s DIY cardboard fort with us by using the hashtag #PlayRelay on social media for a chance to be featured on our blog—happy building!
https://blog.relaypro.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/fort_tn.jpg300695Victoria Senghttps://blog.relaypro.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/relay_blog.svgVictoria Seng2018-06-01 13:54:282021-04-02 11:25:14DIY cardboard fort ideas for kids
Screen-Free Week is here! From April 30-May 6, children and families around the world will turn off their televisions, tablets, smartphones, and gaming consoles and rediscover the joys of life beyond devices. Whether you’re wanting to break away from an unhealthy relationship with technology or simply power down and reconnect with loved ones, Screen-Free Week empowers communities across the world to turn off screens and turn on life. We’ll cover everything you need to know to join the movement with 10 Screen-Free Week activities for kids to get the entire family involved. Celebrate with us as we embark on a week full of screen-less adventures and imaginative play!
Are you worried your child spends too much time glued to their devices? You’re not alone. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the average child ages 8-18 will spend about 7.5 hours per day in front of a screen — that’s over 114 full days of screen time over the course of a year! Power down and spend that extra time getting active, playing, reading, crafting, or spending quality time with family and friends. Inspire your family to dream up their own creative screen-free activities, seek new and exciting adventures together, and reclaim wholesome, unplugged family time.
New to Screen-Free Week?
Check out our Screen-Free Week survival tips to help you get you and your family through the week with ease:
Reflect on your screen time habits. The first step to making a commitment to Screen-Free Week is to understand the meaning behind the cause. It is not an exercise in deprivation, but instead an opportunity to explore new interests and make long-term changes for a healthier, more satisfying lifestyle. Challenge yourself to take a break from technology and rethink the role digital media plays in your household.
Encourage everyone in the family to get on board. The best way to get your child fully dedicated to Screen-Free Week is to lead by example. If parents are fully committed, you’ll not only motivate your child to remain committed to their pledge, but you’ll also have the opportunity to share this experience as a family.
Set realistic goals. Feeling uneasy about spending a week away from technology? There are plenty of fun and simple ways you can ease the family into Screen-Free Week and set yourself up for success! Go screen free at dinner time, tuck the phone away and organize a family game night, or trade Saturday morning cartoons for an afternoon adventure to your favorite local park. By establishing realistic goals for yourself and your family, you’ll find that even the smallest goals are hugely rewarding.
Reconnect at the dinner table. Take time to fully engage at the dinner table and include the entire family in the preparation and presentation of the meal. Get the kids in the kitchen and invent a new recipe, spice up the dining room with a crafty table setting, or throw out a blanket in the backyard for a magical moonlit picnic. Dinner time is powerful way to bring the family together and there are endless ways to revitalize the evening and create unforgettable memories.
Pencil in some awesome screen-free activities to keep the family on track. Prepare a list of activities you’d like to try throughout the week to keep the family active and engaged. Be sure to leave room in the schedule for unstructured playtime to allow your kids to create their own screen free activities. Check out this list of Screen Free events in your area and plan your next adventure!
Looking for more unplugged playtime inspiration for the family?
Check out our favorite Screen-Free Week ideas that will make your kids (and yourself) forget why you’ve been so hung up on screen time in the first place.
Use Screen-Free Week as the starting point to make long-term changes in developing a healthy and productive home. We challenge you to try something new, seek adventure, reconnect with loved ones, and experience the joys of life beyond technology. Join us as we unplug for Screen-Free Week and take this opportunity to explore new interests with the ones you love.
Tell us what you’re doing for Screen-Free Week and share your favorite unplugged family moments in our Screen-Free Week discussion on The Neighborhood!
Learn more about Screen-Free week and how you can get involved at www.screenfree.org.
https://blog.relaypro.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/sfw_image.jpg300695Victoria Senghttps://blog.relaypro.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/relay_blog.svgVictoria Seng2018-04-30 14:34:292021-04-02 11:25:5610 Screen-Free Week Activities for Kids
“Alright, time to put down the screen for today.” It’s a sentence that strikes fear into the hearts of children around the world. As parents and caregivers, we’ve all seen our children’s eyes roll and heard their sighs when we put the kapush on screen time. We’ve seen their little hands thrown up in exasperation and have maybe even been on the receiving end of a temper tantrum. But it doesn’t have to be this way. You can reduce your child’s dependency on screen time and encourage unplugged play by creating areas dedicated to unplugged play throughout your home.Reducing the amount of time your kids spend on screens can be a challenging process—for both parents and kids—but the effort is worth it in the long run. Increased screen time is associated with less family time, lower grades, difficulty in falling asleep, and social-emotional volatility.1There is no single silver bullet. Effectively reducing your children’s screen time requires a holistic approach and a host of methods ranging from reorienting our perceptions around screen timeto environmental changes. Environmental changes can include turning off “background TV,” limiting screen use at the dinner table, and today’s topic: promoting screenless play through the introduction of unplugged play stations throughout the home.
“Unstructured play can strengthen the brain’s ability to plan, make decisions, shift between tasks, as well as to control thoughts, feelings, and actions.”2
With a few small changes, you can make it easier for your child to find his or her next activity once it’s time to power off the screen. It will build their confidence to know there are other fun things to do besides watching shows, YouTube videos or playing video games. And you can feel secure knowing that once your child can independently find entertainment, they will be better prepared to navigate the world throughout childhood and adulthood. Research shows that unstructured play can strengthen the brain’s ability to plan, make decisions, shift between tasks, as well as to control thoughts, feelings, and actions.2 Free play is the mind’s way of preparing for all of the new and unexpected things that happen in life. Exercising that frontal cortex helps kids learn to adapt to life’s changes in a well-adjusted way as well as stay entertained during the day!
Make it easy for your child to “bump” into unstructured play.
Unstructured play is by definition self-directed by the child. It’s supposed to be fun and it’s supposed to be their idea. But what if you have to pry the tablet or phone out of your child’s protesting hands when screen time’s up? What if your child has no interest in battling boredom outside of glowing-screen-land? While no one can make kids engage in unstructured play (that would make it a structured activity!) there are steps you can take to encourage it.To ease the transition from screen time to engaged playtime, you can make it easy for your child to “bump” into activities by setting up stations throughout your house dedicated to unstructured play. It’s hard to be bored when engaging activities are begging to be colored, built, and repurposed everywhere you look. When you make unplugged play easy to encounter around the house, kids can strengthen their independent play muscles and maybe even forget why they were so hung up on screen time in the first place.
“It’s hard to be bored when engaging activities are begging to be colored, built, and repurposed everywhere you look.”
It doesn’t have to cost a fortune either. Similar to the “shopping your closet” mentality, rethink your house as a playground. All of a sudden, seemingly mundane items can become a wonderland for exploration.
10 ideas to reduce screen time and inspire unplugged play:
1) Turn your bathtub into a top-secret lab.
Using everyday household items such as plastic containers, bubbles, and food coloring, your child can stay busy while seriously flexing their imagination muscles. Keeping this activity contained to the bathtub helps with cleanup and prevents stains on carpets and furniture. Remember: don’t drink the concoctions!
2) Give your kids their own dedicated supply drawer.
Make age-appropriate materials readily available to enable hours worth of unstructured play. We suggest a short list of must-haves:
Masking Tape
Colored Felt
Pipe Cleaners
Paper Clips
Large alligator clips
Rulers
Shape Tracers
Child-friendly pencil sharpener
Erasers
Colored Pencils
Crayons
Paper (all sizes, colors, styles)
Washable Glue Sticks
Age-appropriate scissors
With these and other tools, kids can make cardboard forts, temporary racetracks on the floor, and all manner of creative contraptions and artistic endeavors. Their only limit is their imagination.
3) Roll out a big sheet of paper now and then.
Maybe it’s just us, but for some reason, it’s impossible to resist coloring on the table when restaurants provide crayons and a paper tablecloth.Now and then, give your kids the same joy at home, or better yet, screw a large paper roll dispenser to the wall and let them pull off sheets at their whim.
Find a flat surface in your home that your kids can use at their leisure to compose stories or draw pictures. This can be a desk, a countertop, a deep shelf hung at standing or sitting height, an activity table, or even a hard floor surface. Try stocking it with books showing how to draw figures and how to construct a storyline. Make sure paper, pencils (and a pencil sharpener!), erasers, crayons, and colored pencils are close by. If you don’t have a space you can dedicate full-time, grab a shoe box, bag, or storage tote to create a portable writing and drawing activity kit that your child can easily carry to a flat surface.
5) Re-think what you’re throwing away or recycling each week.
A water bottle can be used to build a tall tower or turned into a tornado maker. Paper plates can become a spiral marble track and cardboard boxes can take on hundreds of different applications, limited only by your kids’ imaginations. Used streamer leftover from parties can become a fantastic grass skirt or a portal to another universe. Set these materials aside in an extra laundry hamper or storage tote so your kids can grab them whenever inspiration strikes. Masking tape is a must-have to enable construction, so make sure to keep a roll or two easily accessible.
6) Help your kids reflect on the world around them.
Enable regular observations of the surrounding world by keeping things like telescopes, binoculars, and sketch pads at-the-ready near windows that have good views of the outside. Whatever the view, woods, a city or neighborhood street, a parking lot, or a backyard, kids can use this as a way to reflect on the world around them and process their environment. It also doesn’t hurt to keep a box full of dramatic play outfits in the closet to make for easy wardrobe changes 😉
7) Create a vertical play center.
If you’ve got empty wall space, get the most out of your square footage by mounting a play center right on the wall. A vertical play area can allow for hours of fun without taking up much space (and helps to keep the toys off the floor!) Save money by scouring thrift stores for second-hand shelving or grab some inexpensive wooden boards and metal brackets from your local hardware store. Pro-tip: Hardware stores will even cut the boards to your specifications. We created a play center focused around Legos*. The top shelves are less deep and are used to display finished builds. The bottom standing-height shelf is deeper, allowing plenty of space to spread out and build. You could use this same setup to play make believe with small dolls or figurines, to display any type of collection, to play with toy cars, or a number of other activities.
8) Carve out a reading nook.
Encourage reading by turning quiet corners into book nooks. A book basket and a soft blanket can be all that it takes to inspire your child to get in a few chapters on a regular basis. Try a floor pouf, beanbag chair, bench, window seat, or kids teepee tent to create a sense of relaxation and focus. Don’t forget a bright reading light!
9) Keep a Slinky nearby.
The Slinky** is an iconic toy that has stood the test of time for good reason: it can perform cool tricks. Kids can experience first-hand various concepts of physics like levitation, gravity, equilibrium, and oscillation. When combined with a structured age-appropriate physics lesson from a parent or caregiver, unstructured play with a Slinky can result in a greater understanding of the world’s physical forces. In general, Slinkies and other spatial learning toys offer fantastic learning opportunities for kids to discover naturally through self-directed play. Make sure to try it on the stairs!
10) Save those cardboard boxes!
Cardboard boxes hold a wealth of possibility in the hands of a child. They can become secret hideout forts, princess castles, a spaceship, a network of underground tunnels, or anything your child can dream up. The details are what matter when transforming plain cardboard to an afternoon filled with adventure, so encourage your child to add the details that will bring it to life for them. That may be a moat for a castle, “danger” signs for a secret fort, or a control panel and windshield for a spaceship. Keeping materials such as markers, crayons, and masking tape around will enable your child to follow their imagination independently.
Fair warning: All of these unplugged play stations can have a “tornado effect,” where you end up with multiple little messes strewn around the house instead of one big one. These little messes are evidence of experiential learning, a testament to your child dutifully following their imagination. We’re not saying that they should have immunity to cleaning duty—your child still needs to be responsible for putting the toys away. But walking into the messy play space doesn’t have to be a mood-killer. With the right mindset, seeing a trail of toys can be a joyful, celebratory moment. Try asking your child to walk you through the journey they took that day. Celebrate their play—and then tell them to clean it up 🙂
“When we take the training wheels off of playtime by turning off the screens, our children can experience the independence and joy of pedaling their imaginations to new and exciting places.”
As Dr. Peter Grey, PhD states in his Psychology Today article, The Decline of Play and Rise in Children’s Mental Disorders, “Free play and exploration are, historically, the means by which children learn to solve their own problems, control their own lives, develop their own interests, and become competent in pursuit of their own interests.” When we take the training wheels off of playtime by turning off the screens, our children can experience the independence and joy of pedaling their imaginations to new and exciting places. And when those places are easy to find, they can spend more time discovering who they are, what they love to do, and just being a kid.
https://blog.relaypro.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Header.png300695MKhttps://blog.relaypro.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/relay_blog.svgMK2018-04-03 20:45:262021-04-02 11:26:1710 ideas to reduce screen time and inspire unplugged play