Put a Name on It

If you've ever been to an activity with gobs of children, you've probably witnessed this scene:

Children run off to play, come back thirsty, grab a juice box/plastic cup, take one sip, run off to play, come back again thirsty, take a new juice box/plastic cup, take one more sip... By the end of the day, there is a sea of mostly full juice boxes and plastic cups that no one will claim for fear of germs or whatever.



Last weekend we were at Family Camp on Whidbey Island and a simple labeling system solved the problem. Everyone who took a cup put their name on it so they could keep track of it. At the end of the day, the cups were corralled and put back on the table to be claimed and refilled later. No lost cups, no spreading germs. Yes, paper cups could have worked too, but truly this was better than when I went last year and we had enough leftover silver juice pouches to knit everyone their very own space blanket!



Sometimes simple solutions are the best!