The Kid's Drawers

This is a simple & fun way to make your house very kid friendly.  We have always had a cooking drawer because of my love of baking (not cooking dinner, I usually leave that to my husband).  Anyway, it is a simple low drawer that the boys can get to & it has all of their goodies in it.  They have aprons, rolling pins, flippers, hats, measuring cups along with hot mits & some pans.

When we moved to our new house last summer, we had enough room in our kitchen for not only our cooking drawer, but we have now added an art drawer.  This is also very simple & basic.  It has some containers of markers & crayons.  As well as a larger box with paint, paintbrushes, scissors & glue.  And then to top it all off a large pack of paper (which we replace quite often considering my sons love to draw).

We also keep the "boys" dishes low so they can get to them.  We all eat dinner with glass plates & cups, but during the day (when we are meandering about by ourselves or with friends, inside & out) we use dishes from "their" drawer.  The boys definitely know the difference and treat the dishes a bit differently (plastic vs. glass).  I also keep their water bottles in the drawer so they can fill them up when we are off on a trip in the car.

 The best is when J decides he needs the contents from all the drawers.  Yes, J will get out a bowl & some measuring spoons & then mix up paint, water & cut up paper & stir!  Lots of fun & a big mess (but he makes it & cleans it up, so it is all good). Sometimes he even serves it up as a meal for his younger brother & me.

The other "kid" drawer we have in our house is our snack drawer.  This drawer has always been around (old house & new - before kids & now).  Anyway, it has definitely grown in size in our new house & with kids the contents has changed.  Nonetheless, it is a great thing and it always amazes me when new friends come over and are amazed all the snacks are in reachable distance for the kids to help themselves.  Don't get me wrong they don't get unlimited chocolate pudding, but they do have choices throughout the day.  It has always been that way, so they don't question what they can and can not have. You can always stock it with whatever you want.  So most of the time whatever is in there (in addition to the fruit in our fruit bowl on the table) is up for grabs (i.e. granola bars, raisins, applesauce, crackers, pretzels, dried fruit, goldfish, fig newtons, etc...) & yes, it contains chocolate pudding sometimes!