Rental
Sweet RentalThe Art of Unpacking with Kids
“I’d like to say that moving is a novelty for military wives. But spoiler alert, it is not. As we prepare for our next move, someone recently mentioned “I’d be so stressed with boxes everywhere and two kids.” This will be our 6th move in 10 years, so while there is always stress, to be quite honest, I know what I’m doing now. (Though in all fairness, we have never moved during a world pandemic so that’s bound to add some additional stress – or masks and antibac at least.). One of my secrets to a successful transition? Making the unpacking positive.
We have moved without children, with babies, with toddlers, with baby and toddler, with toddler and child and now with a 4 and 6 year old. We’ve had babies sleeping in strollers hidden in bathrooms, that were fractionally quieter than the rest of the house with movers coming in and out. We have had screaming children on the front lawn at 18:00, totally fed up after 6 hours of the movers having more cups of tea than packing. We have had pajamas dressed littles bundled into the car to drive overnight because we can’t face a 7 hour car journey with them. Sound familiar?
Over the last decade I have honed our moving skills and let me tell you it was a steep learning curve. With that curve though I found finding ways to make unpacking fun has helped ease the transition to our new rental.
Keeping Kids Entertained While Unpacking
Box Forts
The most obvious one comes first, but honestly easily one of the best ones. There are so many different ways that your kids will use boxes. The options are really endless and though you may have to set them up initially, it will reap the benefits for hours afterwards. After unpacking the boxes, I’d let them play with them first. I’m always amazed at the games they come up with on their own. Some other ideas are creating a series of tunnels for them, make them into forts, making a monster throw eater, beds for their teddies, or even cars to drive.
Bouncy Ball Targets
This is a good one to do while you are waiting for the boxes to come in from the trucks. Washi tape or masking tape is your friend! Make some targets on a wall with a point system and get playing!
Washi Tape Race Tracks
if your littles like cars this is bound to keep them entertained for a while. Create a race track that goes all around one room. Got more space? Try it going into another room! No washi tape? No problem, use packing tape!
Kids Tool Kits
This is one we have used a lot. If your children have a toolkit, make sure you have it close to hand when you are reassembling your furniture. Ours love to pretend to help building their own things next to us as we unpack. If your sorting out the garage, flip one of their bikes upside down so the wheels are up and give them an allen key to play with. They can pretend to be mechanics while you get stuff done.
Top Trumps
Finding easy games for car journeys and for when the house is in chaos is crucial for moving. Top Trumps is a game every child plays during their childhood and has stood the test of times with new decks being brought out all the time. I like to squirrel things like this away when I know I’ll need them to be occupied for a while. Buy a new deck and bring it out when you need it most.
Polly Pockets & Busy Books
These have always been top of the pile for entertaining our girls. The small nature of the toys mean they are easy to pack in their bags and take with us wherever we go. Both my girls play for hours will little plastic toys, we have about a million busy books featuring – Paw Patrol, Moana, Frozen 1 and 2, Avengers, Peppa Pig toys you name it. What is great about the Busy Books too is that the box is a book and they always have a mat for the floor for the toys to play on.
Colander and Pipe Cleaners
Younger children can be more tricky to keep entertained when you are distracted with unpacking. So if you know you are going to be in the kitchen unpacking, grab your colander and some pipe cleaners and get your toddlers to thread them through the holes. I was always shocked how long it would keep mine focused for when they were younger.
Quiet Time Folders
As I mentioned before, I am a squirreler. I can’t be the only Mum that does this. I have a box that over the weeks I will file away new pens, colouring books, small crafts that I will bring out when I need them. Building a quiet time folder for when you move is a seriously good idea. Some suggestions would be a new magazine (preferably with toys in them), some new felt tip pens, new colouring book, a small pack of beads to make necklaces, some water painting books (if you have never come across these, you have never lived). Don’t forgot to add a fun snack they wouldn’t normally be allowed too.
Snacktime at the Zoo
Moving means fun snacks that you aren’t normally allowed to indulge in. It’s when the sweets come out in full force. Think about adding sweets like gummy bears or marshmallows and then getting them to building structures with toothpicks or spaghetti before they’re allowed to eat them.
Painting Their Own Room
I know, I know, but hear me out before I hear you all cry THE HORROR. This perhaps is for maybe slightly older kids but I don’t know the more I think about it the more I love the idea. We haven’t tried this one yet as our daughters weren’t quite old enough the last time we moved, however moving imminently has meant I’ve been thinking alot about this. If you know for sure that you will be painting your children’s room a different colour than it is already and you know you are allowed, then why not let them paint whatever they want on one of the walls? Cover the floors completely and thoroughly first obviously. Still nervous? Let them do one wall while you are painting the other three walls of their room. If they love it, let them have it for 24 hours and then paint over it.
The real truth is moving will always be stressful. It’s said to be one of the most stressful life events. Add in offspring into the picture and that makes it a lot more complicated. All we can do is be prepared making sure we keep our kids entertained while unpacking!
Meet Our Contributing Author
Grace Selous Bull is a blogger, painter, military spouse, mummy to two beautiful girls and one furball. After marrying, she gained a teaching assistant qualification and was determined to enhance parents’, teachers and children’s learning about Art Education. You can find more of her creative ideas for arts and crafts activities from toddlers to young teenagers at The RainbowTree, as well as purchase Creatively Mindful Moments activity cards.
Grace is also an international selling painter. Her work strives to give the viewer relief, embodying feelings of dreamy release from the humdrum of life and is available at here.
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