Do your kids like to collect things? You know the type I mean: A special rock from outside. An acorn they just can't part with. A shiny wrapper from a chocolate egg. Random little plastic toys from goodie bags and Kinder Surprises...
Multiply these treasures by 4 kids and I had a whole lot of mess everywhere over the house. Not to mention that child #4 loved to put most of these items in his mouth. What's worse, sometimes I would accidentally throw away someone's prized possession because (GASP!) I thought it was garbage.
Enter the Junk Box. Sorry...I mean Treasure Box. My kids absolutely LOVED painting their own special box and I absolutely LOVED that all of their tiny items have a place to live. I bought the biggest wooden box with a latch that I could find at Dollarama. Everyone threw on some paint shirts and had fun choosing their own colour of paint. To make the painting go quickly and easily for them (since my kids are pretty little), I had them use baby wipes. This sounds weird but it actually works really well. They simply dip their wipe in the paint and rub it into the box. You use less paint and it dries much quicker.
I used vinyl stencils for the lettering but if you don't have access to these, you could easily use stickers/markers/free hand. We kept our boxes REALLY simple. I didn't give my kids the option to add glitter/stickers/etc. to the outside. But, the sky is the limit! My youngest ended up scribbling all over his before we started painting but it makes it unique, right?
I think my kids were most excited about filling their boxes once the paint dried. They play with them daily and seem to add to them just as often. Every few weeks we try to go through them and toss away certain "treasures" that are broken or old to make room for new ones!
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