How many hours a day do you spend on a computer, phone, iPad, or other device connected to the Internet. (You’re doing it right now….but don’t go away yet.) How much of that time leaves you with a feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction? What about your children or grandchildren? Do they know how to build something from scratch or are their days spent typing away on a keyboard…playing video games?
Even Dr. Ruth touts the many psychological advantages of dollhouses…building them, having them…she has quite a few dollhouses in her own home…and plays with them. See this article: http://lilith.org/blog/2016/12/dr-ruth-has-a-dollhouse-too/ If they can work for Dr. Ruth as an adult, imagine how well they work to help abused chidlren who are in recovery from abuse. That is the mission of my nonprofit….Building Faith Play Therapy Toys, Inc.
But, back to the beginning. I was not a dollhouse fan until my parents took me to see the grand Bradford dollhouse in the Smithsonian as a child. Oh, how I wanted that dollhouse and I would have given anything to have it. But since it was unattainable, my mother taught me to use power tools for the first time in my life. I was 12 years old.
Without plans or blueprints, I built (from salvaged materials) this:
It took me 3 years to get it exactly “right”. At the end of those 3 years my self esteem had grown exponentially. I learned patience, creativity, and how to work with my hands in a whole new way.We didn’t have computers then so working with my hands was something children did more often than now, but this was something totally new. And it was all my own work…my own ideas. Nobody was on the Internet doing the same thing I was doing.
Now that I run a nonprofit that provides dollhouses to formerly abused children in recovery to be used in Play Therapy, I deal with many volunteers who are donating their time, building their first dollhouse. They approach the project with trepidation almost every time. They have many questions along the way and they hit rough patches.
But the singular common bond they have, once their project is complete, is…that same sense of newly found satisfaction and accomplishment that I had as a 12 year old. I hear it every time. “I never thought it could do this.” “What a cool experience!”
Most adults tell me that they began to use their project as a “stress-reliever” for, no matter how stressful your day has been, once you start on your project the stress melts away. I think it is because building a dollhouse requires total concentration and thought during the processing of the instructions. What step is next? What supplies do I need?
As your brain starts to deal exclusively with these details, the rest of your day, with all of its ups and downs, fades away until they are gone. And it doesn’t matter if you only have the time/energy to work on your project for 15 minutes a day, you will still feel yourself letting go of all of your day’s worries while also gaining a sense of accomplishment that you’ve made progress SOMEWHERE that day. (And we’ve ALL had those days when we’ve felt like we got NOTHING done!)
So…my suggestion is that you start with a pre-cut kit for your own “Do-It-Yourself” therapy!
Do you have a family member who would join you? What about teaching your child or grandchild to use their hands for something other than video games? I will forever be indebted to MY mother who showed me how to use my first power tools!
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Dollhouses-Tips, Advice, Ideas 