Around Our House: Keeping the Kids Busy One Block of Styrofoam at a Time

In an effort to get more time to work in my studio, I have been devising projects for the kids to do while I work. Our latest project came when we ordered our new iMac.

Both girls got a piece of styrofoam. Sylvia (at 5) is old enough to handle a very small hammer, so I give her a handful of nails and a small handcrank drill with a drill bit. She pounds nails and drills holes and sometimes violently beats the tar out of her block of foam. Beatrice (at 2) is a little small for the hammer, so I give her a pincushion full of pins, a handful of buttons, cut off labels, ribbons, and pieces of felt and paper. She happily stabs pins with buttons and ribbons into the foam. Now before you call DHS or try this with your own children, please remember that my kids have grown up around my sewing supplies and have proven to me that they understand which end of the pin is the stabbing side. And of course they are current on their tetanus shots.

This activity helps them with their fine motor skills and hand eye coordination. Plus it keeps them busy for about twenty minutes.



Beatrice concentrating on threading buttons onto the pins.



Sylvia wielding her junior sized hammer. She's even got her tongue in on the action.



It's Hammer Time!