After my pitiful Pajama Day post earlier this month I decided it was time to enlist some help with at-home activites and ideas. You know for those days (rainy, snowy or, for us deep southerners, waaaaay too hot) when you just can't muster loading everyone up and heading out to do anything. I'll start with a few of our go-to activites and then I can't wait to hear from you guys!
1. Homemade playdough. Yeah, the store-bought kind is fun and all but nothing beats the hot off the stove variety. It's super easy to mix up with ingredients that you more than likely already have on hand and the warm feeling of it after you've let it cool for a few minutes is an instant stress-reliever. Grab some cookie cutters, birthday candles, a rolling pin and a garlic press (the perfect tool for making hair) and settle in for hours (or at least 10 uninterrupted minutes) of toddler/big kid fun. Check out the recipe here.
2. The kitchen sink as instant water table. This is one of Sarah's absolute favorite activities. We turn on the kitchen faucet at a very low drizzle, put the plug in and load the sink up with cups, colanders, and whatever other plastic kitchen gadget looks fun. She loves to sit on the counter with her feet dangling in and just play until she's "sooooakin' wet!" Our one rule: once the sink is halfway full the water goes off and we play with what's already there. I'm not advocating hours of wasted running water here.
3. Mustard and ketchup finger painting. Okay, admittedly it's been a while since we did this but when we did it was F-U-N. Just squeeze some of each condiment into little bowls and put newspaper on a cookie sheet to contain the mess. If you're really feeling adventerous you can try relish or pudding or whatever else is bright and colorful and calling out to you from your fridge. Follow this activity with activity #2 for easy clean-up.
4. Dried rice play. When Sarah was between 10 months and about two years we did this A LOT. I just kept a ton of rice in a big tupperware with stacking cups and a few other things inside. Whenever we were at a loss for something to do I'd pull it out, put it on the floor on a big tablecloth and let her at it. In the beginning she was definitely interested in tasting it but it wasn't a big deal since it IS food afterall.
5. Ziploc bag drawing/writing. Okay, I haven't actually done this one with Sarah but we did it a lot when I was teaching kindergarten. It's a great activity to stick in your closet and pull out on those really slow, crummy days. Get gallon size freezer bags (make sure they're freezer bags b/c you'll want them to be thick and sturdy) and squeeze about 1/2 cup or so of tempura paint inside. Zip up the top and tape them with packaging tape just to make sure your little darling doesn't get all Picasso on your furniture. Spread the paint all around the inside of the bag so that it coats the bag evenly. Now put the bag flat on the table with a white piece of paper underneath and show your little one how to drag his/her finger around on the bag to make letters, numbers, shapes, whatever. It's kind of like a magnadoodle but way more fun because you made it yourself!
6. Speaking of homemade toys, another one of our favorite lazy day activities when Sarah was a crawler was playing with our milk carton lids and formula can bank. I cut a slit in the top of the lid and over a period of several months Sarah had hours of fun plinking the milk lids inside. She got really fast at it too! For whatever reason this seemed to engage her so much more than any of the plastic "real" toys she had that did similar things.
7. Another idea with milk lids comes from my friend Liz. When Sarah turned one and I asked friends to bring househould objects for Sarah to play with instead of gifts Liz took it to the next level. She collected milk lids and put little chick stickers on each one. Then she took an old egg carton and put the same little chick stickers in each egg slot. Sarah loved putting the lids in each of those spots. For older kids you could turn it into a matching game and put one sticker on the milk lid and then a matching one into the egg carton so the child would have to find the match inside. Come to think of it, I just might have to put that together tomorrow! Sarah would love it - Thanks for the idea, Liz!
8. Okay, I'm wrapping up for now but I'll leave you with links to some of my favorite baby/toddler idea books:
The Preschooler's Busy Book
Baby Days (possibly my best goodwill purchase ever)
Baby Play
365 Days of Baby Love
365 Days of Creative Play
Buddy Posters :
Angela at the Painted House - your kid = artistic (and cheap!) genius.
The Sarah Bear
Jessica Leigh
Jenni
35 comments:
I actually posted a kid's painting how-to last week that (with a little preparation) could be a fabulous rainy day activity. We had fun!
Here is the link to the post.
http://thepaintedhouse.blogspot.com/2008/04/open-studio-27-how-to-edition.html
LOVE your ideas! I'll have to try the lid bank for sure--especially since our recycling service doesn't take the lids.
We also like to bake when it's yucky out. Who doesn't like to cuddle up with something yummy to eat when the rain is falling outside the window?
Those are all great ideas. We sometimes make forts in the basement or living room with blankets, stuffed animals (for our tea parties of course), and the furniture. Good for about 30 minutes.
Also Land Of Nod has an awesome rainy day kit. It has two animals to fill and sew with yarn, tissue paper crafts, all kinds of things. It is definitely good for more than one rainy day. It is geared for 3 and up but so worth the $25.
I agree with Angela too that baking is good too if your kiddos like to help. Mine have aprons and use the step ladder to help. They really like to eat the goodies after too.
One more idea-if it isn't cold with the wet, put on a rain coat and go outside. Jumping in water is so much fun (even if you are the mom!)
Try this too:
http://homeparents.about.com/cs/recipescooking/a/pbplaydough.htm
Ediable Peanut Butter Playdough..I saw it on Jon & Kate Plus 8..:)
A quick Mama Monday suggestion: list all of your posts on the sidebar under a "Mama Monday" header, which makes scanning the archive and finding exactly what kid issue you're having easier!
Amy. Amy. Amy. Girl, it's been there since Mama Monday I!
:)
WOW..thanks for all the great tips. I wouldnt even know where to start in adding to that??
Maybe one of these weeks i will have a little something to tag on...
Love all of these ideas! I have to make homemade playdough, but have fond memories of my mom making it for us all the time. And eating it too, ick : )
OK, here's one we do a lot, especially after moving inland (we miss the beach!)
Indoor Beach Days
*I lay out a big blue blanket we have (the water), lay out a couple of big, colourful beach towels, tell the kids to put their bathing suits on, grab some sunglasses, beach-y music and we take turns reading on the "beach" and jumping and frolicking in the "fake water". So much fun :)
Crissy
PS - thanks again for the Grocery template : )
This is perfect! We're having a very rainy day, but I'm not complaining 'casue last week it was snow!
Bubbles!
My babies LOVE their bubbles! I got an $8 bubble machine from Target along with a couple gallons of bubbles and it was soooo worth it! It generates thousands of bubbles in minutes so I put a blanket down to protect my floor and they chase bubbles forever!
I've been wanting to do a sensory table (AKA rice activity) and have also heard it's fun with dried noodles, oatmeal and beans.
My husband works for this company. He's the manufacturing manager and they create and produce their own lines of paint and glue. Their Biocolor is awesome and totally safe. You can do fun things with it like make putty (different from playdough) or paint it thickly on the back of a glass plate or baking dish and let it dry thoroughly, then peel it off and stick it to the window for a sun-catcher.
Check out their website for lots of arts and crafts ideas. I think the section titled Discount School Supply has the most ideas. They also sell all kinds of fun things. Your can subscribe to their catalog which also has fun ideas in it.
http://www.earlychildhood.com/
Sorry...the last one was from me and I hit publish before typing in my name.
Family Fun Magazine has tons of great ideas for rainy day activities. Plus it is inexpensive and many of the activities are adaptable. One of our favorites comes from here and it was called Constrawction. Simply grab a box of bendy straws and let the kids link them together to form buildings, animals, chains, etc...You can also cut slits half way down the straw or at various points so they have another spot to connect the straws. Straws come in tons of colors at the dollar store and they can be used over and over.
Another thing we do is have an inside picnic for lunch. We make a list of what we would like to bring, grab a blanket and picnic basket and get to work. The kiddos help make fruit salad, sandwhiches, etc..and pack. We then spread out our blanket, put on some music and enjoy our lunch.
Also a bag of dried beans or two and your bakeware and utensils goes a long way! Oh, and keep all those big boxes when you get things in the mail. My kiddos love to get one out, paint and decorate it and make a house for themselves, their toys or create something else with it:)
I have nothing to add to all these wonderful suggestions! Many we do but so many more we are going to try. I always have to really think hard to come up with something for the kids to do on bad weather days. I'll definately send people over here from my blog!
1.) my girls LOVEd the water play when they were little. one thing i did a little differently instead of having them up at the sink, since there were 2 of them, we put a dishpan full of water and then some small toys and spread out towels underneath so they could splash a little. oh and sometimes they put on their bathing suits. they also LOVED playing barbies and putting water in their barbie doll pools.
2.)
one thing i LOVED doing as a kid and my girls will sometimes do, is to cut out people from magazines and have your own paper dolls from them, the JCPenney catalog works the best for that!
3.) get some big boxes and let them decorate them, make into a playhouse with windows opening up, my girls would still LOVE this one!
4.) once we painted shoeboxes and hooked them together with string and made a train and then read lots of books about trains (country crossing i think on of them was called)...it's still a fave book i just can't remember the title will look that up>
my girls are a bit older now 8 and 6 so i am trying to think back to ages 2-3 for these ideas! when i think of more i will let you know!!! this is fun to think about!
you have great ideas here!
tara
What great ideas, Erin and everyone! I love Mama Mondays! :) I am all about the forts, too! Caylin loves them and I do, too! ;) We usually make a big one in her room and then gather up all of her books and stuffed animals and read together.
Oh and one more thing - I'm all about scrapbooking so I save ALL of my scraps (stickers, paper, cardstock, etc) and I'll pull that out and we'll just be creative together and my daughter will make a sweet little thank you card (with some of my help, of course) and she just loves to pretend to scrapbook and make things with me. It's a great way to use up scraps and spend some fun time together! :)
1. If the rain is not too hard (like it is at our house right now), you can do water paintings. a few drops of tempra paint on a piece of cardstock or cardboard and go out into the rain to let the rain make the patterns for you.
2. Bubble paintings. They work best with older kiddos though. Put 2 T. tempra paint, 2 T. dish soap and 2-3T. water together in a bowl and mix. Have the kids blow thru straws into the mixture to make bubbles. Place a piece of paper directly on top of the bubbles to make a print.
ooooh...good stuff you guys!
I'm moving Michelle's comment from yesterday over here so no one misses out on her awesome list...
"-play-doh
-puzzles
-tea party
-bake cookies
-Aquadoodle
-paint toenails
-have a playdate over
-fill a big tub with rice or beans and let the kids play in it with scoops, cups, shovels, etc. It's like being in a sandbox. It's a little messy, but very easy to clean up and super fun!
-paint with watercolors
-make mini pizzas. Take canned biscuit dough and flatten it with a roller. Add some pizza sauce, herbs, parm cheese and mozzarella cheese and bake for about 15 minutes. Kids love to "roll" the dough and add the toppings! "
One of my kids FAVORITE rainy day activities is to go puddle stomping!! We put on our rain coats, rain boots grab unbrellas and go out and stomp away!!
Another activity I bring ourt is our craft box. This is a plastic tub I filled with construction paper, tissue paper, toilet paper rolls, paper towel rolls, empty tissue boxes, glitter, glue, chenelle stems, jewels, colored noodles, beads, yarn, feathers, paint, paint brushes, scissors and craft sticks. They are able to make some pretty cool stuff and it keeps them focused for a good hour or more.
We also bring out the board games and card games; Candyland, Guess Who, Cootie, HiHoCherry-O, Uno, Go fish, Old MAid, Slap Jack are all favorites in our house.
An activity my girls enjoy is doing "school work" in homemade work books. My son doesn't care for this activity too much, so when the girls are doing the workbooks he is usually working in a homemade "art binder". For the girls work books I made worksheets on my computer and printed some free ones off ehelper.com. My sons art binder consist of drawings he has made....he LOVES to draw very detailed pictures and he really likes that all his drawings are kept in one place and he can go back to pictures he made weeks before and add things to them.
Since it's SNOWING today here, I think I may pack them up and go get some freezer bags and tempura paint. Help me Lord!
Love all the ideas. Great topic!!
--snow in the bath tub! my three girls love this, I bring buckets of snow and put it in the tub. The girls put on their gloves, snow boots and play with their sand toys in the snow. Lots of fun!
--sewing! I draw an image on cardboard, cut it out, punch holes around the edge and then the girls sew with yarn.
--spa days, we start with baths, then do their hair, put dresses on, paint their toes and figures and conclude the spa treatment with a tea party or lunch.
--we also like to invite friends over on rainy days...there's just something sweet about rainy days with your friends! Amy T.
Fun Stuff!
We paint with just about anything! Hot wheels cars are super fun to paint with! Roll them through the paint (I use a pie plate for the paint) then roll them on the paper! Way fun!
Crayola makes window markers. BIG HIT here!
I cut up my old magazines and we make all sorts of fun collages with them!
"Spin Art" where you use a salad spinner, coffee filters and thinned out paint, Tape the filter to the bottom of the spinner, drop paint on it, put the lid on and spin! This also works great with the Glitter Glue you get at Costco.
Stickers! Some stickers have it where the whole sheet is a sticker and the shape is kinda cut out... I take the back off so the little ones can just get the sticker shape. I might not be explaining it right... sorry.
We have a little tent and a tunnel that I only get out every few months... and that is a life saver! They don't see it enough to get board.
For my older ones I'll buy receipt pads and they play store or I'll give the index cards and they play library.
Oh my, we love to play with some rice, beans & noodles around here. I remember once, I left G&A in the kitchen "playing rice" on the big blue beach towel. (they were like 1 1/2 & 3) I heard wild laughter and a "shpishhhh....(giggles)... shpishhhhh" sound. I walked in & found them tossing rice by the handfulls under the refrigerator! I laughed (it must of been a good day). I'm certain there is still rice under that fridge till this day. (it was where we used to live). Anyway, just wanted to share that funny story.
I enjoyed hearing everyones ideas. We used to do lots of those things, & it seems now in our days of hustle & bustle my creativity gets lost. Even though G & A are older now, they would still enjoy them, ANd I don't want to slight Amelia...so thanks for the reminder!
thanks for the shout-out, Erin :)
Hey, I'll bet ketchup/mustard would work in your gallon ziplock "reverse painting" for those of us w/out tempura on hand, huh?
Liz, you're a total genius!
By the way, we should totally try some of these activities one week from tomorrow when YOU'RE AT MY HOUSE!!! :)
Great ideas! Can't wait to try them when Julia is a little older.
You're such a fun mom, Erin! Great ideas.
I always give my kids their own cookie sheet when we make playdough. The lip contains the mess (for the most part) and allows their table to be somewhat portable.
Another fun idea is to give your kids a dry erase marker and let them draw on the front of your fridge. *This will not work on stainless appliances*, but I have a plain 'ole white refrigerator, and it's the perfect canvas for my kids' creations! Just test a small spot first and make sure the marker comes off.
Erin,
Years of teaching 2 year olds have put lots of tricks up my sleeve (many which have been listed), but my favorite one was "Paint the House." Good for an outside day, even if it is hot....just something different, and not messy (except for water). Get (small) buckets of water and let Sarah 'paint the house' with a paintbrush and water -- different sized paint brushes are fun, too and a god activity for several kids together. They can draw designs or do some serious housepainting, whichever is prefered (works best of course on brick, but siding is okay too). This has been a activity that takes a LONG time for 2 year olds on up -- it makes them feel like they are so grown up! So much fun...also, in place of the rice table, you can do a 'noodle' table with cooked pasta and let them feel the textures of the squishy pasta -- yes, kind of gross and messy, but so fun. -- Joy
I can't wait until my daughter is a couple of years older so I can do fun things like these with her!
I worked at an after-school program last year and some of the activities we did with the kids were so much fun--
One in particular was "shaving cream painting." Put down a large black lawn-sized garbage bag (cut open to increase surface area) and give the kids a can of shaving cream (cheap at dollar stores) and have them squirt themselves silly. After awhile add a few drops of food coloring here and there (kool aid powder works well, too).
If you're worried about the young kids eating/licking the shaving cream, you could probably use whip cream cans, too.
I really enjoy reading your blog - lots of great ideas from everyone.
I listed a few of our favorite activities on my blog: http://www.jklmrussell.blogspot.com
JOY!!!
I forgot all about house painting!!!! My Grandma Joan used to "let" me "paint" the house! OH! I was out there for HOURS painting stucco!
I just want to say that I am in awe of the goodness of people! The Pigbear's Big Give is at nearly $850! That is so inspiring and will make a huge difference in the life of that family.
(I'll also say that I was having a fuzzy morning when I commented about the Mama Monday sidebar. . . I really did check before I wrote that quote!)
I have so many ideas from my years in daycare but one that my kids still love doing is tracing their bodies on large paper and cutting them out and painting or decorating them. We use different things for collage if you don't want to paint. I actually add powdered paint or koolaid to the glue to make coloured glue. Some collage materials are: dried pasta, Wool, old material, just about anything. If you don't have large paper you can use the back of wrapping paper. We have all our little bodies hung up in a row to see how they have grown. Adding koolaid to homemade playdough adds colour and smell. We also love doing pudding painting, use your hands and it's okay to eat! A messy but easy cleanup is GOOP, cornstarch and water. We put our plastic animals play for ours, it's a very weird sensory experience that I can't even describe but we love it. My daughter wouldn't touch it so she used gloves and every time I did it we cut a finger out of the glove until they were all gone and she'll touch it now. When this stuff dries it turns to powder and you wipe it up!
we do a lot of sink play too:)
real quick...a new place i discovered is the crafty crow...i'm sure if you google it it comes up!
Erin ~ I'm not posting often these days (been terribly busy with so many things), but I just wanted to say I am LOVING your MM postings!! My favorite so far has been the Reading topic - too bad you don't get a % from Amazon because I ordered about 10 of those books you recommended. I have gotten "something" from each of your MM topics - THANK YOU!!! You are the best!!! :)
Love, Love, Love the housepainting idea! We have had a beautiful week so far, so I gave it a try and like a lot of you said, it literally provided hours of fun. My kiddos and the neighborhood kids liked to paint their swing sets. And then today two more sets of neighbors had their "paint buckets" and brushes out and were painting. We now have a beautiful neighborhood! Thanks for the great activity.
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