SAHM

What things do you do with your kids? I'm thinking stuff I can do at my house. I just (today actually) started watching 2 more kids and don't have room to take all 5 of them somewhere, so I need ideas for in and around the house.

I did order Family Fun magazine and I cant' wait until it starts coming for some fun ideas!!

I mean, I know th ebasics...but I need some more fun stuff.

Coloring
Play Doh
Making cookies
Going on walks
Kicking the ball around outside
Sandbox

I need some more creative stuff!

 

I bought two "little hands" books that have crafts for kids ages 3-6. They use a lot of household items like toilet paper rolls, paper plates, etc. to make crafts/artwork. I also have a box of stuff like popsicle sticks, pompoms, pipe cleaners, etc. that we use to make crafts. They have fun with those!

 

QUOTE(twinzmom2b @ Jun 3 2008, 01:42 AM) [snapback]806561[/snapback]
What things do you do with your kids? I'm thinking stuff I can do at my house. I just (today actually) started watching 2 more kids and don't have room to take all 5 of them somewhere, so I need ideas for in and around the house.

I did order Family Fun magazine and I cant' wait until it starts coming for some fun ideas!!

I mean, I know th ebasics...but I need some more fun stuff.

Coloring
Play Doh
Making cookies
Going on walks
Kicking the ball around outside
Sandbox

I need some more creative stuff!


I don't have time to be that creative on mine own. I order The Mailbox for preschoolers. It is 29.95 for a year. You get 6 issues a year. Then you go online and it has the printables to go with it. I love it. It keeps me more organized that I can do, plus it is flexible. I can do the themes whenever I want to.
http://www.theeducationcenter.com/cgi-bin/tec/guest.jsp

 

How about:

- Doing your own story time or music time with songs/ instruments
- Make a fort out of couch cushions/ sheets (play with flashlights)
- Chalk (outside) washes off ewasily
- I give my kids a big bucket of water (outside)and a a large paintbrush and tell them them to "paint the house!". The alos "pait" the windows, deck, whatever! Worst case sceanario is they get a little wet. They also like to "clean" with a sponge and some sudsy water. Yesterday they cleaned thier Crocs!
- Easy cooking/ food activity (simple snacks, like trail mix, popsicles, smoothies)
- Ok this can get messy, but my kids love it. I actually do this indoors crazy. I let them wash their babies. I fill up a medium sized rubbermade contianer with water and soap and give them the babies that can get wet and a washcloth. I often add a few cups. They'll play wiht this forever! I put all of my towels that need to be washed on the floor all around. So, when they are done paying, I clean up all of the spilled water (which is MOST of the water) and throw the towles in the washer.
- Movie time (good for a rainy day). Make popcorn and turn off all the lights (Hey, mayber they'll even fall asleep!).
- Simon says
- Dance party

Have fun!

 

I just had to say that I LOVE the Family Fun magazine! I used to subscribe to it when I taught Sunday School, they have some awesome crafts in there!

 

I taught special needs pre school for 13 years.

I don't know if your library has books on tape{or cd's} kids love to hear books read to them
Put cool whip on a colored plastic plate and let the kids "finger paint" with it. You can add fruit to the finger painting and call it skiing.

If you want to get a little messy you could get a large plastic container{the ones that go under a bed and sweaters are put in them} and call it your media table and then put in rice, sand, maccaroni, cotton balls, dry oatmeal, beans, construction paper and scissors. There is this thing called insta snow powder insta snow thats a website describibg the product. Its really neat add water to the powder and it fluffs up and is cold{cool not freezing} doesn't melt and its non toxic and you can make molds with it. It lasts about 2 months and you don't have to make the whole batch at once.

You can have the kids lace either by tracing shapes onto tagboard or sometimes you can buy sets that are plastic and the kids can lace them again and again.

They could "drive" toy cars through paint and then have them drive them on paper to make tread marks. And then they could have a car wash and wash the cars.

We always had fun painting feet and making prints.
I would do induvidual and then touch up the foot and then have the children walk on a long piece of paper.

I can't think of anything else right now, but
I'm really tired. If I think of anything else, I'll PM you. GL T

 

Have a music day and make homemade shakers.
Sing. My girls could sing for hours. Even if it's a kid cd. Give me itsy bitsy spider and twinkle twinkle and we're good for at least thirty minutes.
Our E/I preschool would do things in themes for a month. You might want to try a week since this is at home and all day... All about Animals. Transportation. Summer Fun. Fourth of July. etc... Have stories, songs, toys, snacks and crafts that relate to the theme. Ex. Read a book about farm animals or a trip to the zoo. Sing Old Mac Donald. Play with a little people farm and other toy animals. Eat animal crackers. Color animal pages. Watch an animal movie. Use animal molds or cookie cutters to make animal shapes with playdo.

 

When I did home day care I ordered a relatively inexpensive home preschool program. It had everything laid out for you so you knew what to do each day with very little planning time. I'd usually go through and pull out the stuff during breakfast or free play after breakfast. I think the one I used was Mother Goose Time or something like that. It was alot of fun to do with all the kids.

 

I picked up the Toddler's Busy Book by Trish Kuffner on Borders' bargain table for $3 (http://www.amazon.com/Toddlers-Busy-Book-Trish-Kuffner/dp/0671317741). It's full of creative, CHEAP ideas to do around the house! Most of the materials it recommends are already lying around your house just waiting to be repurposed.

I found First Art by Maryann Kohl (http://www.amazon.com/First-Art-Experiences-Toddlers-Twos/dp/0876592221/ref=pd_bxgy_ba_img_b) at my local teacher's supply store. Also a great book full of fun activities!

 

I haven't done this yet, but I just saw a recipe for chalk paint yesterday.

This is the recipe..."Take 1/4 cup cornstarch and mix with 1/4 cup cold water. Put into individual muffin tins and add food coloring. It is easy for painting and looks really neat when dried."

Other ideas are...
Puzzles
Bubbles (in addition to regular bubbles, I bought at a Dollar Tree really big bubble wands that are a lot of fun and work great!)
Buckets of water with bath squirt toys (from the dollar store)
Bikes/Scooters/Cozy Coupe cars on the driveway
Nature Hike (give them a bag and let them pick up treasures (rocks, sticks, leaves) on a walk)
Dancing to a kid CD
Hoola Hoops (even though they can't do them, they are a lot of fun to play with)

I can't say that I do a lot of structured activities with my kids. Depending on where we are playing they just play with what is available. If we are in the front yard we have things that are appropriate for the driveway there (chalk, bikes, bubbles, jump ropes, basketballs, etc). If we are in the back there is the playset, balls, buckets, sand, etc. Same goes for in the house. There are some things that I will do more structured, messy things like playdough and paint. But when we are outside, they kind of pick and choose what they want to do.

 

If you're really brave and want to try something a little messy to hold their attention, you can mix 2 parts tempra paint with 1 part dishwashing soap and let them paint on the windows (from the outside, of course!) The soap mixed in with the paint makes it wash right off with just the hose and paper towels. My boys love their window paint time.

 

Reading time... coloring books, markers, dry/erase books, water colors, finger paints, play doh, side walk chalk, bubbles, puzzles, color forms, snack time "sorting" activities...where you give them a bunch of little snacks and use it as a sorting/counting activity.... visit the dollar store and look for cheap arts/crafts stuff... stickers... foam art stuff... My kids have been doing drawings with these foam animals that are stickers for several weeks now...and they were like $1.50 for a big box. Note on all this arts/crafts stuff your life will be much easier if you get smocks for everyone!!

 

Don't forget to check out this great list of Toddler Activities that was compiled.

We do water play, go for walks and look for things, whether it be a certain color car, flags, flowers, etc ...kind of a nature walk, sidewalk chalk in the driveway, bubbles, crafts (finger painting, gluing foam shapes/paper/googly eyes into crafts, coloring, etc), forts, they help me bake, etc.

Some great ideas here!!

 

I'm getting TONS of ideas...thanks everyone!!!! Keep 'em coming!

 

I take my DD to Michaels (craft store) and i buy craft things.. construction paper, google eyes.. pre cut foam with sticker backing, ect & Let her go to town.

I also found number and letter foam pieces and we made her name.. and we say letters and count things.

make up games.. for outside play. water.. sprinklers.. little pool?

 

don't forget the magnitude stickers have. My two will sit for a LONG time peeling and placing stickers. If you put them onto wax paper, they last alot long too.
They've discovered the sprinkler too. I love it, just turn it on and the will run through and play. Not much on water conservation, but they love it. And going to the park will always give you at least twenty minutes of some sense of sanity, in broken up small interrupted doses of course. But the kids have a blast. If you live in a bigger city, alot of times the museums will have a free or discounted day you could take the kids to. If they're at an age where you can. My two are too little yet, but I've made a note of it.