$0 Fun for Hours: Dream Houses

for some reason kids (and grownups) just love it

Tom and Tony Bancroft were artistic young boys raised by a single mother named Cori. When they were growing up, Cori wasn’t able to give her sons all the fancy art supplies she wished she could, but she always made sure they had pencils and paper. Guess what: those brothers turned out fine and became Disney accomplished animators and led in design for characters such as Pumbaa, Mushu, and Kronk. You don’t need to be able to give your kids everything in order for them to soar.¹

On Monday, we talked about how all the things you can’t do for your kids might actually be giving them the gift of resourcefulness.

Here are some things your kids can do with just paper and a pencil (and maybe markers, too.)

Design a Dream House

First, draw an outline in pen or Sharpie of what kind of dream house you’ll have. (This is something grown-ups can do for little kids to help them get started.) Is this home a spaceship? A burrow? A submarine? A house inside a tree? Here are some quickly sketched examples that any adult can draw for their kids ⬇️

Then let your kids go wild! They can build libraries, indoor gardens, slime rooms, saunas, skate parks, dance rooms, indoor skydiving, you name it! You could also limit their color palette to 3 or 4 different crayons/markers to give them some creative limitations.

You’ll want to make a dream house, too, whether you’re making up a fantasy mansion like when you were a kid or just mapping out a better way to organize your actual home 😉

Check out this dreamy treehouse sent in by my friend Diana! 🤯

Even 10-year-old boys can get into this! I love how Joél included anti-gravity room here.

Tina got creative and made a collage! Wow!

I hope those ideas get you started. Here are some questions you can ask to get the gears turning and get to know your kids a little better.

Some discussion ideas:

• “Okay, give me the tour. I can’t wait to see what you came up with.”

• “Wow, there are so many cool rooms! I’ll bet this would be a great home to welcome others into. Maybe next we can design a whole community center.”

• “Are there any less exciting but important rooms that we might need to include if we were to actually live in here?” (Bathroom, kitchen, laundry room, etc.)

• “How do you like the dream house I designed? I borrowed your idea with the waterslide from the top floor to the pool.”

• “What are some ways we can make your real room more like your dream room?” (This is a good chance to talk about decluttering! I’ve never seen a kid draw a dream house with tons of toys on the floor.)

I hope your family enjoys this simple activity! You might be surprised by how much time your kids might spend on this. It’s one of my go-to’s if my kids are having friends over and I need everyone to be quiet for a bit 😜

Have a great weekend!

Warmly,

Hope from Family Scripts

1. You can hear the brothers interview Cori on a special episode of their podcast called “Raising Artists with Cori Crismon.”