On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I post a picture and just a few words.
The stuff kids write when they’re playing is just the best, isn’t it?
I especially love the one on the left….”Tell them to how to spell it write.”
Ohh, homophones.
____________
I’m posting this mainly because it cracks me up, but there’s a bit of a frugal connection:
Marketers don’t want us to know this, but children can sometimes be quite happy with nothing more than paper and a pen (and some imagination).
A Frugal Family's Journey says
Our kids can’t write just yet, but we get the same feelings from seeing the pictures they draw for us and tell us to hang on the refrigerator.
Holly says
So cute! That made me laugh
Thanks
Lorraine says
Haha. I love the future credit card customer already working up her ire. But also that there is a solution!
When I was a kid my dad brought home literally thousands of IBM cards (heavy paper cards with tiny holes punched in them). And we had a ball with those. We also lived near a “paper factory” (which was actually a printing company) and my brother would dumpster dive there and bring home lots of blank forms, receipt books (with carbon pages!), “do not disturb” door knob hangers, etc. to play with.
Maybe it has to do with living in Nevada -you know, one stop over from San Francisco :-), but somehow we also wound up with a book of gorgeous mining stock certificates from a defunct mine that we filled in and played with, too.
All that paper play probably inspired my life love of paper/stationary/journals etc.
Theresa says
I’m laughing over San Francisco, CA being a town in Nevada!
When my now 18 yr old (and a senior!) was 6, his favorite ‘toys’ were paper and tape. For his birthday we gave him 2 packs of his own paper (since the printer paper kept being consumed at an alarming rate!) and a rack of tape dispensers. He was the happiest boy creating all sorts of things. It is the simple things that make all of us the happiest.
Kristen says
Oh, I think she was saying the train stopped in SF and then didn’t stop again until they got to an unnamed town in Nevada.
Lori says
My kids’ new thing is index cards. They made little cards, tiny pictures, board game pieces, characters for some Pokemon-like game they invented. They cannot get enough of drawing on index cards. A $1 pack from the dollar store lasts them a couple of weeks. It’s not a bad deal. They also love the little memo pads you can get 3/$1 at the dollar store.
Ange K says
My kids’ favorite things to have when we go somewhere they may be “bored”…. a spiral notebook and pen.
nicoleandmaggie says
My almost two year old doesn’t even need paper. But we make up for money saved on paper with magic eraser costs.
Kristen says
Oh dear. Been there, done that. We’ve had the, “What is the only thing you color on??” “Paper.” conversation many times.
Occasionally our children have colored on the walls and signed their names in the process. Which makes it easy to find the offender!
Lori says
My youngest, who is almost 3, seems to actively dislike writing on paper. My other kids sometimes wrote on the walls, but not like this one. Give this kid 10 unsupervised minutes and a crayon, and he’ll cover every surface in a room. And, he really likes to write letters and numbers, so it ends up making my home look like an insane asylum, with strange cryptic codes all over!
My daughter got an easel for her birthday (a chalkboard on one side, a white board on the other), and that actually seemed to help a lot. He uses it much more than she does, and being able to write on the chalkboard seems to have quelled his compulsion to write on the walls a bit.
I have a friend who runs a small art gallery, and in the children’s room they painted one wall with blackboard paint, so the kids can write right on it. I was seriously considering doing something like that on one of our walls!
nicoleandmaggie says
An easel– that is brilliant. DC1 used to have one, but it didn’t make a move.
Lili@creativesavv says
One day, when my twins were 6, they were mysteriously quiet in their room, while I was hurriedly cleaning the house. I decided it would be a good idea to check on them. They were busy “tattooing” themselves with a permanent marker. My parents were due to come into town that evening, and were planning on taking us out to dinner. The wait staff at the restaurant about died laughing. They sent every waiter and waitress over to our table to see our daughters. One had hearts and flowers all over her face, the other had a mustache and new bangs. It took several days to get the permanent markings off their skin. I don’t even want to talk about the scissors incident.
Kris says
Love these stories! My kids were pretty rule-honoring with using paper instead of the walls, but my nieces … that’s another story. One niece used a marker to color Grandpa’s sneakers while he napped in the recliner. Another (her sister) was in a crib (probably age 2 or so) and was able to reach a highlighter that her older sister had left on the dresser. When her mom came in to get her up from her nap, she discovered a daughter with very yellow arms and legs.
nicoleandmaggie says
That’s not “one day” for us– that’s every day that she manages to get a pen or marker. Fortunately our oldest has always been a rules follower. Unfortunately he still leaves pens and markers where our daughter can reach them even though she has lost all writing utensil but pencil privileges.
Kristen says
Oh yeah. And Sharpies? They are way, way, high out of reach.
(At least, since that one unfortunate day when toddler Zoe colored all over herself and our new wooden steps and white railings with Sharpie.)
Kelley says
Just like toddlers are happier with a big empty box then a toy!
Kristen says
So, so true.
Elspeth says
I love love love that there’s a character in her imagination who’s angry at the credit card company.
My House, My Rules! says
LOL! This cracks me up. These are also the kinds of things her own kids will love to see someday.
Scott says
Definitely. My girls are the same way – Sometimes my wife makes them little notepads from scrap paper at her work and they seriously think they are the best.
Dawn says
Love it when you share these. Spell it write! So cute.