Crafting Our Afternoons

Working full time means I have less than three hours to spend with my boys on any given weekday.  I find it's best not to dwell on this calculation but I do need to find a way to maximize this quality time.*  The clock is ticking as soon as I pick up the boys.  We stumble in the door with jackets waving, shoes flying and bags dropping.  The tote bags are filled with remnants of our day:  empty cups, Liam's blanket, daycare journal, Henry's coloring pages, lunch containers, student papers to grade, to do lists and the junk mail I collected at the curb.  Usually the answering machine is blinking, one or both of the boys are literally screaming  for attention while the dogs scratch furiously at the door and/or try their darndest to trip the rest of us with their frantic pacing. 

It is amidst this chaos that I need to reconnect with my family.

If I work backward from Liam's 7:15 bedtime, dinner needs to be on the table by 6:15 at the latest or 6 pm if it's a bath night.  That means I must decide on and start preparing our simple dinner no later than 5:45.  So, if I'm lucky, there's one hour of free time for us to share. I need to engage the family in an activity that transitions us from our separate days and gives us a sense of belonging to one another again.

My boys love their GeoTrax.  Some afternoons we simply take off our jackets and shoes and play trains for an hour.  Henry and I disagree about track design, Liam can't understand that the white diesel train does not work no matter how many times he places it in my lap and I am constantly noticing the stains on the carpet,  but all in all, it's a pleasant way to spend the time.

Henry loves to do puzzles but, no pun intended, this is not a connecting activity.  Liam cannot do Henry's jigsaws and he absolutely refuses to work age-appropriate, chunky wooden puzzles alongside his brother and me.  Tantrums abound. 

Last week I stumbled upon a simple craft.  Both boys had great fun creating a big mess.  Liam used his fingers, Henry used paintbrushes and safety scissors.  I used a sponge and some 409.

As a result everyone was engaged, working side by side for a few minutes while we debriefed our busy days.  We talked about colors and nature.  We talked about the head-to-toe mess that Liam had become.  It was fabulous family time and the finished product, while less important than the process, is a visual reminder of this shared activity.

I'm currently looking for a few more open-ended projects with a tactile components for Liam and a series of steps for Henry to follow.  I purchased a used copy of Rosie O'Donnell's Crafty U book.  I also discovered toddlercraft.net and of course, there's my favorite go-to for ideas, Family Fun. 

I've brainstormed a few other ideas for this family time.  I'm going to fashion some color and number dice and teach the boys a game with Duplo blocks.  Roll a color and a number, then add those bricks to your builidng.  Again the key is to find something that will equally engage an almost 21 month old and his 3 1/2 year old brother.  Since my boys love to eat, I'm also looking for more "make-your-own" recipes; tiny pizzas and pilgrim hat cookies are the menu for this month.  Now where did I put that sponge and 409?

* Full disclosure:  Some days I'm just too tired to do anything except retrieve cartoons from the dvr.