Happy Wednesday! Former teacher here and lover of arts + crafts. Caroline hasn't napped for 2 years now, so I implemented rest time activities. Rest time for her isn't laying down and looking at a book, it involves doing an actual activity. She will play on her own, but only for so long. Caroline enjoys any kind of process activity, and one that she can figure out on her own.
Tinker boxes have been our solution for independent play for a few years now. She uses the box completely by herself, and it allows her creative juices to flow. I switch out the sections in the box every month or so, depending on what her interests are at that time. It doesn't have to be all art either. You could make it a tinker box for your car-loving child (which I plan to make one for my car-obsessed son, will post that when I make one) or one based on building...the possibilities are endless!
Currently, Caroline's tinker box is all about Halloween: Halloween paper, stickers, washi tape, orange glitter glue, googly eyes etc. I will be posting a video in my stories and will have a tinker box section in my highlights on my instagram page.
I find most of the art related things for the box at Michaels, as well as the actual tinker box. One tip for the box, if you make it an art tinker box make sure to have an old cookie sheet or some kind of tray handy. It will make cleaning up so much easier. Happy tinkering!
