Junk modelling at school

[Whatisgoingonheredear]

I hate it.
I know it is good for their imagination, creativeness, design skills, learning through play.
DD has been back at school for one week and her entire bedroom is full of junk modeling. She likes to play with the junk bur doesn't actually model any of it. Empty boxes become houses, space ships, treasure chests, rockets. It's lovely But her bedroom floor is covered in recycling.
She gets very upset if I mention we can't keep any of it and every day she comes out with "just one more". There are always tears when I say we have fo get rid of an old one and it makes me feel dreadful because she's obviously built that box up to being the best thing ever all day at school. And of course it isn't that old because she's been back 6 days.
What do I do with all of the recycling?!?!
If we were closer to Christmas I'd say santa won't be bringing anything because he will see you have all these boxes keeping you busy, and get rid of them...but we are so far away.

Lighthearted but also...not.

I suppose it depends on your priorities. I'd let her play and close the door so I didn't see the mess. She's obviously enjoying herself but you're more worried about the mess. She'll grow out of it in time and then you can recycle.

Pretty sad to be threatening with Santa in this scenario. She is engaging in imaginative play, I would be inclined to come up with storage systems for "raw material" and help her build a village out of the boxes she already has. High raise apartment for dolls, maybe?

We had huge tears at the weekend because one piece of junk modeling had been recycled (felt bad as they had worked hard on it but then not touched it for months and months!). Think it depends on the size of your house - I can barely get to the wardrobe in DC bedroom due to another junk model that won't fit anywhere else. Moving house is going to be interesting! Hopefully we won't need to bring it all with us

They have been back at school 6 days and you want to get ride of it already!

This is the best sort of play for her developing mind, let her keep it and play with it. Buy her some craft stuff for Christmas she really likes it.

I would do junk modelling at home with my kids when they where little, I did it as a kid. Best thing ever.

I'd let my kids keep theirs for weeks, they would grow tired of them eventually. Or they would brink new one's home and we'd say, it's time to recycle an old one to make more space. But give her plenty of time to play with it first.

Could you get her involved in taking photos of the older stuff before getting rid to make way for new. Get them printed out or do an album of creations that she will laugh at a d treasure when older.

Why can’t she keep them? Put a shelf up and shove them on there

This used to annoy my mother back in the day too. Apparently mine were just "objects" without much thought behind, which made it worse.

I would recommend a big box on her floor. Really big. Use a plastic one, or even a pop up linen basket, or she could decorate a cardboard box. Junk models live in there. When it's a teetering pile maybe losing the ones at the bottom won't be quite so painful.

Can you keep them somewhere specific? Ours go in the conservatory once DS is a bit bored with them (usually a week or so), then they gradually get recycled out the back door as they fall apart.

I don't mind a bit of mess though, and six days is nothing. There's a plastic bottle fish in our living room which has been there since last term because he still plays with it.

I could live with the mess, what I hate is sending in clean recycling, and then getting junk covered in glue and such back. So it's no longer recyclable.

It can't be that heavy so just buy a big net bag and hang it all from the end of the curtain pole, if she has one? It all has to go in the bag at the end of the day.

My ds is in year 6 and he doesn't need school. He does it in his spare time too. His room is a bomb. With bits of boxes plastic etc. We tidy, 2 days later it's the same. I just have one big clear out once a year and then just make him pick it all up off the floor so I can hoover once a week. It won't be forever.

Hide a few of the older ones in the attic/on top of your wardrobe/in the under-stairs cupboard for a few weeks and see if she asks about them. If she doesn't mention them, put them in the recycling bin. Repeat.

Argh I'd forgotten about junk modelling as I'd managed to phase it out with my 10 yo but my youngest has just started school so I guess I need to start creating that mountain of cereal boxes and investing in sellotape shares.

My rule is that I don't mind if the bedroom is a bomb site, but it doesn't go anywhere else in the house.

I do get that mess is annoying but given how much it upsets her I wouldn't pick this hill to die on.

Be thankful she is happy to be creative with what you see as rubbish rather than wanting expensive toys and creative kits that are usually full of plastic and are next to useless.

This too. My smuggles things down and I make him take it all back up again!

What my eldest's teacher does which is brilliant is take a short video of DS6 holding his model and talking through his design and thought process, what he likes, what he would change and what would he improve. We have that video to keep and so he has the memory for when we get rid of the model (although at the moment they reside in DH's office on a prized shelf).

I used to casually suggest that maybe grandma would like it 😂

You need to chill out! 😝

The Santa line is harsh!

Taking a photo and creating a scrapbook of models is a good idea and keeps the creativity going. Thanks for the idea @AnchorWHAT

I'm not at this stage yet, but as I have a small house, tips for toy/art storage are going to come in handy!

What harm is it doing?

Could you suggest that she take them back into school to remodel?

Ahh I can see why it annoys in the moment but I promise is ten or fifteen years time you’ll look back and wished you’d just rolled with it.

My niece is in her 30’s and still jokes about how sad she was that her dad threw away the dolls house she made out of boxes. He bought her a fancy one for Christmas but she said it wasn’t the same and she’d just felt crushed that he thought her creation was rubbish and not as good as a shop one. She laughs about it now but obviously the memory has stuck with her for years!

I used to love junk modelling. I build loads of things. Remember you might have a future engineer, architect or designer. This is where it starts. I would suggest you take photos of everything and create a portfolio and say that they keep the very best ones. Perhaps even frame the photos and put them on the wall if they want to see them. You can see how their skills are developing