Hey! How about something lighthearted and fun? Students are about to stream out of schools across the nation, and parents are scrambling to fill days with something other than screen time and the deluge by commercial industries bent on sucking your child into the maelstrom of false consumer need… hey! Hey! I said lighthearted and fun! Stick with me for a sec...

I’ve been inspired by trash. My husband took our daughter to a reused puppet-making workshop put on by the awesome Mudeye Puppet Company. Bruce Orr, the founder, creates clever and beautiful puppets out of recycled junk, and uses his silly fun shows to raise environmental awareness. At the workshop, Hova and Georgia were surrounded by piles of interesting trash — stuff that might not be able to be recycled at the curbside or your local recycling center, but that could, with a dash of imagination, be made into puppets! Using glue and masking tape, old cardboard, egg cartons, some photos from magazines, bits of ribbon and fabric, strange blue spongy things and a chopstick, they came home with the most fabulous mermaid puppet. The spongy blue things became fins, two egg wells from the egg carton became a shell bra, ribbons festooned her tail and her rolled-up cardboard arms outstretched to welcome all to see the beauty in trash.

Also inspired by the Mudeye Puppet Co., Georgia’s teacher fashioned a Creation Station at the pre-school, where kids could use their imaginations and a bunch of stuff otherwise destined for the landfill to make really cool things. Georgia made the most marvelous tridrake (three-headed dragon) out of a triplet of seedpods, an old plastic muffin “tin,” and popsicle sticks. Painstakingly painted, fragile and beautiful, it sat on our mantle until it became part of a game that was a little too rough. She has also made hats out of old paper, sculptures out of old playdough, buttons and twisty ties, and a really cool round thing that sparkles out of an old CD, those colorful little hard plastic bag closers, and broken necklaces.

And here at home we’ve got plenty of junk! I keep cardboard coffee containers, plastic produce “clamshells,” interesting pictures, broken beautiful things, fascinating rocks and anything I think will become a project someday. If I had a Creation Station I’d feel more creative and less packrat-y, but junk comes in handy when Georgia gets a creative streak (which is, admittedly, more often than I have energy for). She rummages through it all, pulls ribbons off of old projects, makes animal tails, paper necklaces, cardboard crowns, and uses miles and miles of tape (not recycled. Is there such a thing?) to craft wonderful art or toys out of nothing.

So grab some scrap! I believe any little kid left to his or her own devices, a box of junk and unrestricted tape and glue privileges will create something great. Or if you're looking for a little more structured craft projects, you could try out one of the new books on the market dedicated to teaching kids to make beautiful treasures out of junk. Adults might have to squint to see the greatness, but a well-praised pile of rubbish might just stave off that next hour of computer games or TV time!