It's the Simple Things

It really is true that no matter how much you spend on your baby, she will love the box and wrapping paper more.  It's the simple things in life that she loves.  I should take a lesson or two from my daughter Carly.  A kitchen utensil and an empty chili powder container give her the greatest pleasure.  No matter how much we spend on her, the highlights of her day have come from my kitchen or the dollar section of stores.  Who'd a ever thought books, puzzles, play dough, colors, and coloring books could be so much fun! 

I hope she can stay in this mode as it seems as children grow older, they begin to struggle with entertainment while at home.  When I was growing up it was Barbies, Kick the Can with the neighbor kids and building forts whether in the snow, in my backyard or in my playroom.  We'd venture off to catch frogs and weird looking unidentifiable amphibians to bring back to share with mom. 
 
Now it seems many kids can't seem to manage without their iPhone, video games, and a play station/x-box/Game boy (what ever you call it-we had Atari). 

If school cancels and you are lucky enough to be with your child for the day, What do you do? 

Here are some great ideas (shared by other moms I know) to get you and your child reacquainted with the "Simple Things" found inside your home.

Have a board game marathon or Make your own board game.

Build a fort-use blankets, couch cushions.  Then turn out the lights and tell ghost stories!

Paint using different objects and paint on different (approved) objects.  Make paint (see below).

Read together.

Make up and perform a play, video record it. .

Write letters (actual ones on paper) to mail to grandma, grandpa, and other relatives.

Play Charades

Get out the video camera and interview your kids or have them sing their favorite songs or kareoke.

Look at old pictures or watch old home video tapes.

Bake some cookies or other yummy dessert.

Tie dye

Have a dance party

Race your remote cars

Practice a fire and tornado drill and discuss other types of emergencies and what to do.

Clean out their toys. Together decide which to keep and which to donate to charity. 

Clean rooms by taking out a hula hoop and fill with things that need to be put away. 

Puzzles. Use store bought or try making your own by cutting up pictures your child (or a sibling) has drawn.

Buy lots of different kinds of stickers-foamy, glittery, puffy, animals, etc. Let your child make a sticker scene on construction paper. Use letter stickers to practice words or making a silly story.

Make a story book out of paper and the stickers.  Have the child write along the bottom of each page.

Legos and blocks. Build a city together.

 

Color scavenger hunt. Give your child a paper bag with a color scribbled on the front, or a colored bag, and ask them to run around the house until they find items of that color to put in the bag.

Magazines and old newspapers

Have scavenger hunts.  Have them find items you ask for, like pictures of smiles, flowers, a Mommy, etc. Cut out pieces and label pages according to letters other categories such as land/sea animals. 

Buy some magnet backings and cut out face pieces to make silly faces on the fridge or words to make silly sentences on the fridge.

Old boxes
Rubberband/shoebox guitars. These are fun to play, and fun to make. Just a couple of shoeboxes with rubber bands around them create music (but not too loud) and lots of opportunity for exploration.

Lacing boards. These can be made with leftover cereal boxes, or can be purchased. You punch several holes along the outline of a shape, and ask your toddler to weave shoestring in and out of the holes.

Balloons

They don't even need helium- just blow them up and provide a pool noodle for hitting, or tie bunches of them up with a bunch of ribbon and let your kids try to keep them in the air.

 

Try giving kids a straw and having them blow their balloons around the room.

 

Make paper mache with modge podge and newspaper then paint it when dry.

Rice/beans
Make a rice bin with some rice or beans, and some scoops or cups.

Use old paper towel tubes or toilet paper tubes, put the beans inside and close of the ends for maracas!

Chalk
It's versatile- if you have a chalkboard that's great, but chalk can be used on black construction paper, on driveways and sidewalks if you're outside, on rocks, on felt... you name it!


Masking tape or duct tape
Make an obstacle course. You can tailor this to meet your child's needs- put down a straight line and ask your child to walk/hop/skip along it.

Create squares they must use to jump between, even adhere tape to the walls in a hallway and tell your child to try to go below the lines you've put up.

Practice letters.  Tracing them with their fingers and on the bigger letters-walking them.

Make a city and use old boxes (Kleenex/band-aid/food boxes) for buildings and homes. 

Flour

Cloud Dough (the stuff at hands on museums)

8 cups flour & 1 cup baby oil. It feels like flour as you run your fingers through it, but it's moldable. A wonderful sensory activity for children.

Playdough

• 2 cups plain flour (all purpose)
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup salt
• 2 tablespoons cream of tartar
• Up to 1.5 cups boiling water (adding in increments until it feels just right)
• food colouring (optional)
• few drops glycerine (optional- adds more shine!)

Mix the flour, salt, cream of tartar and oil in a large mixing bowl. Add the boiling water. Stir continuously until it becomes a sticky, combined dough. Add the food colouring and glycerine (both optional). Allow it to cool down then take it out of the bowl and knead it vigorously for a couple of minutes until all of the stickiness has gone. * This is the most important part of the process, so keep at it until it’s the perfect consistency!* (If it remains a little sticky then add a touch more flour until just right). Make designs by using cookie cutters, Legos, sporks, beaded necklaces, and little truck wheels.

Glow Sticks
Go swimming in the tub with the glow sticks.

Fairies in a jar- 1. Cut a glow stick and shake the contents into a jar. Add diamond glitter 2. Seal the top with a lid. 3. Shake.

Hair Gel
Sensory bags- zip lock bags, clear packaging tape, hair gel, aloe vera gel or corn syrup, food coloring, any small objects.

Fill the bags with gel, food coloring of your choice and objects.  Seal tight with packaging tape.  Kids love to touch.

Salt
Ice painting- glue and salt-table or Epsom…any kind.  Can add food coloring.  Paint with a spaghetti stick for different effects!

The Frozen Hand Salt Experiment:

• latex gloves
• water
• food coloring
• twist-ties
• shallow baking pan

Fill a glove with water.  Leave yourself a couple of inches at the top because you’re going to have to twist it shut. Add a drop or two of food colouring, and shake the glove to disperse the colour. Twist glove tightly a couple of times and secure snugly with a twist-tie. Lay glove in baking pan. (the pan will catch any water in the even that a glove leaks. Place pan in freezer overnight, or if outside temps are cold enough, place the gloves outside overnight like I did. Show the effects of how salt can melt ice in your kitchen sink

Shaving CreamPaint a snow scene with equal parts of glue, shaving cream, and white or clear glitter!  Add baking soda to make it grow! Paint with different objects.  Use a muffin tin as your easel and add food coloring to make different colors

Play with shaving cream by squirting it onto a surface.  Draw in it, drive your toys through it!

BoraxMake Slime

Mix 1 teaspoon of borax in 1 cup of water. Stir to dissolve the borax. In a separate container, mix 1/2 cup of glue (1 bottle) in 1/2 cup of water. You can add food coloring if you like. When you mix the two solutions together, cross links will form between the molecules, forming the gelatinous polymer we call slime. The slime is non-toxic and can be cleaned from surfaces using soap and water. You can store the slime in a plastic baggie to keep it from drying out.

 

Make a bouncy ball

Start with 2 cups, one labeled “Borax” and one labeled “Ball.”
In “Borax” Cup pour 2 Tablespoons warm water and ½ teaspoon Borax powder. Stir until Borax is dissolved. Add food coloring if you choose.
In the “Ball” Cup, pour 1 Tablespoon of glue.  Add ½ teaspoon of the Borax solution from the “Borax” cup and 1 Tablespoon of cornstarch. DO NOT STIR. Allow the ingredients to interact on their own for 10-15 seconds then stir until they’re fully mixed.
When it’s impossible to stir, remove it from the jar and knead it in your hands.  It will become less sticky the more you work it.
Give it a bounce!  Store your ball in an airtight container or Ziploc bag when not in use.
Wash up your area, your equipment and yourself to avoid dried on glue and such.

 

Crystal ornaments and decorations

Bend a pipe cleaner into any shape and submerge in a Borax solution. The colors of the pipe cleaners come through as crystals form, adding to the overall design.

Silly Putty

Mix Borax with craft glue and water and the result is pliable silly putty. The silly putty has a stretchy consistency and is strong enough to lift images from newspapers, just like the commercial brand.

Paper Plates
Make a clock, a snake, an animal face, a crown, a stegosaurus hat.

Paper
Make a paper chain.  Make a paper plane and see whose plane goes the furthest.


A snowy day might seem miserable outside, but is a gift filled with a world of memories to be made on the inside.  Kevin, Monica and I visited earlier today on North Dakota Today.  Check out our discussion here!