Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is that you need a busy basket. Toddlers aren't
Speaker 1: the only ones who can benefit from an entertainment kit.
Speaker 1: Put one together and you will never find yourself at
Speaker 1: a loss for what to do. Today's tip comes from
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast listener Ferriita Alkoff. She has a nineteen month
Speaker 1: old daughter and notes that she has prepared a busy
Speaker 1: basket full of activities such as blocks and stickers to
Speaker 1: keep the little girl independently occupied. Anyway, while editing her
Speaker 1: home office, Friita came across books she had been meaning
Speaker 1: to finish new books she hadn't touched crochet and crossed
Speaker 1: the projects, art material and so forth. She says, it
Speaker 1: occurred to me that grown ups need a busy basket too,
Speaker 1: So she found herself an unused basket and threw in
Speaker 1: it a few half read books, her half done crochet project,
Speaker 1: a couple of new adult coloring books and pencils, a
Speaker 1: journal and a nice pen.
Speaker 2: She says, I've been meaning to cut down on my
Speaker 2: screen time, so this came at a perfect time. It
Speaker 2: now sits in my home office, so if I have
Speaker 2: a spare minute or after hours, I can use it
Speaker 2: to read or create. It's already working. I spent a
Speaker 2: good fifteen minutes coloring at the end of the day
Speaker 2: instead of scrolling on my phone. I love this idea.
Speaker 2: We have explored the concept on Before Breakfast before of
Speaker 2: creating kits, that is, keeping things together as a way
Speaker 2: to encourage fun or progress on projects. A busy basket
Speaker 2: is another way to think of this. You are creating
Speaker 2: a kit for screen free fun, one you can pull
Speaker 2: from when you need it, or even take with you
Speaker 2: if you are going somewhere boring, like I don't know
Speaker 2: the dentist's office. What you put in your busy basket
Speaker 2: is up to you, but the point is to make
Speaker 2: it look enticing. With toddlers, you definitely want the kid thinking, hey,
Speaker 2: I'd like to play with that. So what would do
Speaker 2: that for you? I would probably like some nice note
Speaker 2: books and pens. Maybe it's some really cool new markers
Speaker 2: and a coloring book. I would probably like some design magazines,
Speaker 2: and maybe a book of photos of gardens, or maybe
Speaker 2: a book of funny essays or poems. Think about what
Speaker 2: would make you excited, then put together a basket full
Speaker 2: of the goodies. Then, like Farita, whenever you are looking
Speaker 2: to fill a little time, you can grab the basket. Now,
Speaker 2: it might not be quite as obvious as grabbing your
Speaker 2: phone and scrolling around on Instagram. I guess your phone
Speaker 2: is also a busy basket of sorts, but with a
Speaker 2: little preparation it could be equally cool looking. And if
Speaker 2: you are trying to spend less time on screens, that
Speaker 2: is a big benefit. Indeed, in the meantime, this is Laura.
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
Speaker 2: our time.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas,
Speaker 1: or feedback, you can reach me at Laura at Laura
Speaker 1: vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia.
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