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| Simple Things to Do | |
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If it is too cold to go outside or you are just not in the mood for sand all through the house, try this alternative.
Pour some flour (own brand cheap stuff) and pour some into a deep tray. Then get out a few small trucks and cars. The kids will spend a bit of time trying to fill up the cars and making roads in the flour etc.
Afterwards throw out the flour or pop it in a container and mark 'dirt' on it so it doesn't end up in the baking! A Human Bubble Make up a bubble mix solution. Then have your child stand inside a hula hoop in a wading pool full of bubble solution, and then you pull the hoop up around him? Now you have a human bubble!
You will need Shaving cream, Food colouring, Muffin tin, Spoon, Paint brushes, Sponges. Place shaving cream in each section of a muffin tin. Add food colouring to each one and stir. When the kids are in the bath allow them to use the "paint" to paint themselves, the tub and the walls. Cleaning up couldn't be easier. Make sure you check for allergies first. Don't forget supervision is recommended for younger children.
Do dot painting on pre-drawn pictures like a snake or a kangaroo. Put paint in a meat tray and have children paint in a dot fashion using end of pencil, cotton bud or toothpick. Use brown, black, yellow, orange, red and ochre colours.
Fill up a bucket with water, the wider the better. Let the children put their feet in the water, then make footprints! This is best down on concrete paths, driveways or courtyards. Have fun comparing sizes, shapes and patterns.
Playing with a cassette recorder. You will need a cassette recorder and a cassette for this one.( See if you can locate a tape recorder to borrow for the day if you are now only a CD family.) You can let the children just sing and talk and then play it back. They think it is hilarious listening to themselves and their family and friends. You can go one step further and without the children knowing it, go around the house and tape all sorts of different sounds. For example a car, the kettle boiling, the tap running, birds outside, your mobile phone ringing. Let your imagination run wild, and make them as easy or hard as you see fit. Then ask the children to identify the nosies.
On a sheet of white paper, use a white crayon or wax candle to write a message or draw a picture. Your child can then paint over the paper with tempera paint to see the picture or message appear. If you don't want to use paints, this technique works just as well with crayons.
Give each child a large piece of white drawing paper. Get each child to think of an animal and keeping the identity of the animal to themselves, ask them to draw a part. Ask one child to draw it's head, another the body, another a leg, another it's nose and so on. When the children have finished, have fun putting all the animal body parts together. Then you can colour it and decide on what you are going to call your new species. (This one is great for a party game)
Using old catalogues or magazines, cut out pictures of chairs, tables, curtains, bathroom fixtures and other furnishings. Spread out a piece of butcher paper or large sheet of drawing paper. Sketch an "open sided" house on the paper. Have the children place the pictures of the furnishings in the rooms of their choice. They can cut out even more pictures to redecorate their house. They can cut out pictures of people, toys, pets, anything they like!
Children love to perform. Putting on a play is a way for children to use their imagination and literally show off. Some children make up their own crazy story lines with bits of clothing as costumes from their dress up box. Others stick to the traditional story lines such as The Three Bears or Cinderella. As they grow and mature what was once a five minute goody verve baddy, 'hey watch me Mum' deal, can turn into a full 20min production complete with issued tickets! Encourage these events. It is important for children to have their parents watch them and show approval by clapping and saying 'bravo'. In years to come when it comes to show and tell at school or attending their first job interview, your children will deliver their performance with confidence and pride!
Bird watching is a fun, inexpensive activity for families. You can reserve a special space for bird feeders anywhere in your yard, and throughout the year watch the variety of birds that come to visit. It is also fun on bushwalks to look and listen for different birds. Around your home you can place bird feeders to attract different birds. You can buy or make these feeders. It can be as simple as a terracotta saucer with seed placed on the deck or an elaborate birdhouse. Bird seed is inexpensive to buy. Try different things and see how the birds respond. Many will eat sunflower seeds placed in a hollowed out grapefruit placed on a nail head on your deck. You can buy or make seed 'bells'. Older children can go a step further and keep track of which birds show up during the different seasons. Planting native trees in your yard also attracts birds of different kinds. Have fun, experiment, and let the kids learn about nature. Watching and listening to the birds is relaxing for adults too, so the whole family benefits
Pressing flowers is a lot of fun. Don't just limit it to flowers though. Leaves and foliage also can be pressed. If you don't have a garden, then go visit someone who does. Pick the flowers with your child, taking the time to look at each one and talk about it. Do they like it? Is it one of their favourite colours? How does it smell? How does it feel? Bring your collection inside and place them between sheets of kitchen paper towel. Then place these sheets between heavy books. Small children don't like to wait very long for anything so only give them a couple of days pressing time. Now you can make a college, a book mark, or some gift cards with your pressed flowers.
Children love water. From tiny babies to teens, water is an attraction. If you are lucky to have a pool in the back yard, then you will no doubt know the fun a 'pool party 'can bring. If you have small children, then simply letting them play in a blow up pool is a great way to pass a few hours. Add water pistols, items from the kitchen like sieves and colanders, plastic bottles etc. Putting on the sprinkler, is sometimes all that is needed, to hear the shrills as children dart in and out of it. Another idea if you have a slope in the yard, is to tear open a large garbage bag and peg it down on the grass with some tent pegs. Add water to it and you have a water slide. Please note that children need supervision around water at all times. Never assume that 'they will be right'. Also remember sunscreen and cover tops
This is a great activity for something to do outside especially on a nice warm day. Attach a real paintbrush to an old empty paint tin or a bucket. Half fill the bucket with water and food colouring and let the children spend hours "painting" the fence, the driveway even the house. It will easily wash off.
To make it a pleasant experience for both child and carer here are a few simple things to remember. Children want to see what is going on, so a stool or chair is needed. Children want to help, so allow a lot longer than you think you could do it in. Make it all fun, but you could turn it into a learning time also. Learning what spread and sprinkle and melt etc means are a great way to expand their vocabulary. Also simple maths come into play. Add one egg now, if we add another egg how many have we used? It is also great for children just to discover what happens if they place sugar in water and how flour mixes to a paste with a little water. Give them some containers and ingredients and let them discover it all by themselves.
Children love to have their own area that is closed off from the real world, where they can pretend to be anyone or anywhere. Some simple ways of making cubbies is to cover an ironing table with a cloth, cover a card table, or cover chairs placed together with blankets or sheets. Old tents make great cubbies. Now add a plastic teaset with some dolls or soft toys or a doctors set for hospitals or just a torch, and the children will play pretend for hours.
This is great to play with your child or if other siblings are around or friends are over. Make believe is a chance for children to use their imaginations and for carers to remember their childhood. Cafe/Restaurant: Children love to wait on their carers. Help them decide on a menu and write it out on a piece of folded paper. Give them a note pad and a pencil to take the order. They will probably sit you down and ask you to choose. Then it is off to a table where they have their teased and other cooking play things set up. You will be amazed at how quick the service is as they present you with your order. Encourage them also to play on their own by propping up their dolls or soft toys as customers. Home play : Playing house is lots of fun. Dressing up like Mum and Dad is fun. Keep a box for old ties, shirts, gloves, hats, purses, bags, sunglasses, beads etc. Add a tea set, some dolls or soft toys and some toy furniture made out of boxes and listen to the grown up chatter for a laugh. Shops or Markets: Shopping is a part of life that is a necessity. By having fun with pretend, this will spill over to a happy shopping experience with children in tow when it comes to the real thing. If you have a toy register and pretend money you are half way there. Cash registers can be made out of an egg carton and money out of circles of paper. Add bags and baskets and empty grocery boxes or a bit of real food for a grocery store or old clothes for a clothes shop.
Giving a child a spot in the garden to call their own is wonderful but if this is not possible pots are the next best thing. Pots can be placed indoors or on balconies or in courtyards. Remember they do need more watering but with a budding horticulturist around and with the aid of their own little watering can this shouldn't be a problem. Bulbs are great to place in pots along with seeds or seedlings. Because the seedlings will normally flower quicker than the bulbs this will hold the child's excitement. Vegetables (especially the dwarf varieties) are also lots of fun as the child can pick them and take pleasure in giving them to friends and will be more inclined to eat them if they have grown them. Watching carrot tops grow in moist cotton wool or been sprouts in an empty egg shell are also exciting. Miniature Gardens are a wonderful idea. They give the child a chance to make and view a little world of their own. Use a large plate or a shallow container and place a small amount of potting mix in it and then allow the child to add pebbles and small plants and moss like plants for grass. Then add little figurines and cut out a blue piece of paper for a pond.
As children get older simply giving them a tennis ball and a wall that they can throw it against will keep them amused. You could draw a circle in chalk as a target or put out some containers that they have to aim for to make it more interesting. Also give them a racket or add a basketball hoop to a wall. Another idea is to cut off the end of a 2 litre milk container, leaving the cap screwed on the other end. These make great catcher/scoops to pass the tennis ball between children. Old favourites like piggy in the middle, captain ball and tunnel ball are great to get going when there are a few children together. Keeping a blown up balloon off the ground is also fun for a group of people. Return to Children's Activities
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Children seem to embrace nature. The world is filled with wonderment as they
learn how plants grow and eventually die. By giving children something to care
for, instils a sense of responsibility. This can be a great learning experience
as they learn about different plants, by smelling flowers that they have grown
and learning simple propagation methods, such as cutting off geranium leaves and
seeing a new plant evolve.
Children start from a young age to play with balls. Once they can sit up,
babies love it when a ball is rolled to them and eventually they roll it back.
Sitting on the floor with a baby doing this is the beginning of hand and
eye coordination. Very young children also love to catch balloons that fall to
the ground. Because they take longer to fall this gives children a chance to catch
and feel a sense of gratification.