Split Playroom

My 1 year old son L has been wanting to get into all kinds of things lately. He is so curious and will open cabinets drawers, boxes, and anything else he can get his hands into. I constantly need to follow him around to make sure he is doing fine.

Since my 6 year old daughter E and 4 year old son C end up playing with things that could be a choking hazard for L, I split up the playroom and walked off certain sections of it. The playroom was split in half for L to own one side of it. The other half was further divided into two sections so E an C could have separate sides. This has been working well for the last few weeks.

As time went by, the sides E and C were on started to change dramatically in different ways. E put him decorations, organized her section into themed play areas, and started to make art. There was an overlapping table that she and C could use to do their art projects. They were obsessed with Fuse Beads and kept making more and more designs with them.

C also started to make art and read books. He wanted a cozy spot so he brought in pillows and blankets. Since he kept reading, his section got messier and messier because books weren’t placed back on the shelf. Then, C decided to take out toys from the donation bag and give them one last hurrah. There were car parts, track parts, and all sorts of other things strewn about.

When you took a step back and viewed the two areas, you really got the sense of how the two kids operated. I ended up cleaning C’s side for him so it looked neater and picked up all the Fuse Beads that were stuck in his fuzzy chair. It took a while, but now the two sides look more similar. L has no figured out how to get into C’s side, so I had to re-engineer the wall to confuse him because you can’t push and pull in the same parts anymore. If C and L got together on that side, I couldn’t imagine what it would look like. Maybe keeping that wall up is for the best (for now!).