Where can you find the best toys?

Check your garbage!

My First Exposure

When I made my ‘60s escape to a Kibbutz in Israel where I hoped to satisfy my yearning to be a farmer, I landed at Kibbutz Sde Eliahu, nestled along the long, peaceful Jordanian border.

I felt like Alice in Wonderland .  Two generations had turned a malarial swamp into a paradise born of hard work — luscious fruits, waving wheat and cotton fields, and a glowing crop of kids.

In addition to learning how to grow pomegranates and care for baby cows, I was privileged to get a front row seat to see how to grow happy children with solid self-esteem.

But I didn’t ‘get it’ right away.

The first thing that confused me was that the kindergarten seemed to be housed in the junkyard!

On my first tour around the kibbutz, our guide proudly pointed out the Kindergarten.  But I was horrified to see their play yard strewn with broken toasters, contorted bicycle wheels, old tires, and discarded computers.  Hazard signals pulsed through my brain shouting every childhood warning of “Don’t go near that because you’ll get …!"

“Don’t they know how dangerous that stuff is?” I thought.  “Poor third world country” I surmised.  “Maybe I can help somehow” was my hope.

But as I watched a child gallop outside and jump into an absorbing exploration of an old iron, I slowly began to understand the genius in their junk filled play-yard.

We generally find that kids like playing with real things – real anything – rather than toys.  They want to be competent comrades in our world, and they have endless energy for trying.

So to overcome the challenge of keeping our cell phones, i-Pods, laptops, and cameras out of their eager hands, I suggest redirecting them to other real-world activities...

But how do we satisfy G!Kids development spirit without sacrificing our sanity?

My Kibbutz Mother, Rachel, has been my guide for implementing 'reality play' over the years.  First for my kids, and now with my grandkids we are still working the program together.

An early memory I have came soon after my ‘adoption’ into their Kibbutz family.  One morning I watched Rachel dealing with her 2-year-old son, Erez, who was having a fine tantrum about NOT going to his nursery school that morning.  I knew that Rachel taught sewing in the high school and needed to get to class, so I watched with interest how she would get out of this predicament..

Rachel sympathetically understood that Erez needed a transition of some sort, a bridge to ease him from home to school.  She looked over to a high cabinet and with a huge conspiratorial smile asked Erez if he wanted to bring something SPECIAL to give to his teacher?  This halted the hysteria somewhat, lowering it to a tough "I dare you" stare.  Erez was waiting to see how it would play out.

Rachel moved purposefully towards the cabinet, where Erez and I supposed she kept the super-special out-of-kids-reach treasures.  She moved slowly, looking over her shoulder, as if to see if the Brinks Armored Truck guard was on full alert.  She reached in, grabbed something, and waved it ceremoniously in front of Erez’s hopeful gaze.  He broke into a matching smile and reached out to grab it.

And I watched them walk happily hand in hand down the path with Erez holding tightly to his prize – a brown cardboard toilet paper roll, that he was already using as a horn to sound his happiness.

This was a lesson for a lifetime.  Rachel has since expanded this strategy to accommodate her many lively grandchildren.  She keeps a box of discards which they make a beeline for when they visit.  From toilet rolls to electronics, there is always something interesting to explore there.

Introducing my Grandchild Captivator:  The “Work Cabinet".

At my GrandHome it’s critical gear - A 5-drawer rolling plastic dresser with a flip top.  And it’s filled with stuff that would have gone to trash, but are now treasures.

I like it because several kids can ‘work’ simultaneously.  Also, because it’s on rollers so they can move it from room to room to follow the adult action, or take it to off to be by themselves for private conspiracies.

You may discover that indeed ‘the best things in life are free’ if you test out this effective and very funny strategy for keeping kids majorly engrossed in high-level play!

How to get a Work Cabinet started at your GrandHome:

1. Cool Cabinet is Crucial:  Use a similar plastic, multi-drawered, rolling cabinet, preferably with varied drawer sizes.
   
   
2. Clutter Clearing: Go through your stuff and contribute things you use less than once in 3 years:  Like tape measure, ruler, old binoculars, piles of old business cards, old deck of cards, CD players, bubble and sponge packing materials.
   
   
3. Digital Dumping: Your ‘computer stuff’ drawer will likely have a bunch of potential kid treasures you'll never use again, and previous phone chargers, unidentified cords, etc. You get the idea.
   
   
4. Label Protection: If it’s a similar piece of equipment that you also have and don’t want them to touch - like an out-of-use computer mouse - or it looks useful even though you’ve relinquished it, then give them stickers to decorate with so everyone knows it's 'approved kids stuff'.  This also helps their horrified parents to remain calm as they see their children walking around with what they think is your glasses perched on top of their heads, waving a CD player, mouse, or earphones through the air.
   
   
5. Trash toTreasure: From now on, before tossing mail, old checkbooks, expired driver’s license, old glasses [a BIG hit!], any broken small gadget or appliance, think first about adding it to your collection.  The Work Cabinet needs continual replenishment as stuff gets truly trashed.
   
   
6. Premium Stuff to Stuff With: Occasionally consider contributing something extravagant that is still useful, but low cost: A package of tissues, q-tips, pop-up wet wipes,  some pens and small notebooks, etc.  I find that putting small treasures in the Work Cabinet that they can waste as they want is a special delight..
   
   
7. Marketing Your Program: My favorite trick is to make some passport pictures and put in the little case of them deep in some drawer. The kids love finding them and that’s one of the few things I let them take home!  I consider those pics well-placed 'leave-behind Grandmarketing materials' to keep me ‘top of mind’ with these little clients of mine.
   
   
8. No Take Outs: Everything else stays in the Work Cabinet. If you set this as a firm rule early on, the kids respect it.  I think they also secretly know that such treasures won’t last long at home, and they are happy to leave it in your safe keeping.

So give it a try and enjoy the instant remedy for boredom when you suggest to the kids that there may be new stuff to see in their Work Cabinet, and they make a beeline to dig for buried treasures.

Here's links to Browse & Buy a couple of options for plastic rolling drawer cabinets that I've put for you in our GG Amazon Store, to get you started if you don't have one available:  

May all our days be filled with their thrill of discovery,

Ronda Kay

p.s.  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it me pictures of your Work Cabinets - especially with your 'workers'....

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