Maybe you can put the good cameras & all that under lock and key and leave out some that you're fine with them taking apart....I mean things you get for free from Freecycle or the local recycle/swap center. Just leave lots of these things out that you don't particularly care about and let the kids take them apart and try to put them back together again.
Â
This isn't to say that you don't also need to work on the discipline side of it in an age-appropriate way, but by providing these clever kids with some things that really challenge them and feed their need to explore and experiment, that could help release some of that pressure.
Â
And I'd leave out tons and tons of things that are ok for them to experiment with, like toys and art supplies (free ones from the recycle center or Freecycle or from the 25-cent bin at yard sales) or even your own recycled stuff (you'd be amazed at what you can make out of half-gallon milk cartons once you start cutting them up! Really! The bottoms can be used like blocks to stack or store things; the tops can be used for little houses, just cut out some windows and doors); you can turn them longways and cut the sides out and they can be modified to be "flying devices" for beanie babies.....add tinker toy wheels and they are a car....you get my drift). Also I used to just leave out a roasting pan full of rice and construction vehicles on one of the tables. I'd throw in some sparkly beads and other treasures....the imagination goes wild. When he got a little older I switched to Moon Sand (it never dries). I'd just leave it out and whenever he needed to push and squish something, there it was.
Â
The key at this stage is not to get too worked up about messes. Because anything they find interesting is bound to be a mess. Oh, I just remembered, a basin full of dish-soapy water, then you put in some drops of olive oil and let them have fun with the blobs and shapes. add in some food coloring and things get really nuts. But again, messes. It's a tradeoff. :-)
Â
It does get better. My son is 8 now and he's a real peach about cleaning up his own messes and/or using the supplies in such a way that he doesn't make too many of them in the first place. But when he was the age your kids are now....forget it. He had me ripping my hair out more often than not. Not with the misbehavior so much--by some miracle my artist son was never seized with the desire to write on walls. Once in a while he doodled on the bathroom door while on the pot, and I explained that he knows better....and if he really wants to do art on the walls I will show him how to do a proper mural....LOL), but with his general tendency to make more messes out of things than I was happy with. At the time I remember thinking it will never end, but it does. :-)
Â
