Calling all my Mommy blog readers! I was recently asked to speak/teach a class at an upcoming women's meeting. My subject? Activities to do with your kids. I certainly have a few ideas on my running list already but I LOVE and SOOOO appreciate to hear from YOU!
What's your favorite activity/craft/recipe to do with your kids? Have you blogged about it or read it on a blog somewhere? Post the link! :) I need activities for all ages so don't by shy! and they don't need to be just for summer - think all year round, rainy days, weekends, long afternoons, etc.....
AND of course I would be happy to share my completed list with all of you after I teach the class! Sound fair? You scratch my back and I scratch yours? tee hee hee......
18 comments:
Not on a blog I've seen, but we enjoy going to see the free summer movies. Sure, we've seen them before, but free is a great price ; )
We also go to the bookstore year round & have drinks & read books together.
Roadtrips. Whenever we can, we get in the car & go. Last school year most of my daughters history lessons were seeing parts of California. It was great fun.
I just started a funner time blog. Ideas to do daily with your children. Now do remember I just started this (I think I've only done 2 posts, so far) Though it will be updated. Most of the time daily!
http://funnertime.blogspot.com/
We love to go to the zoo; no matter what time of the year. For arts and crafts all my kids (even my 7 year old son) enjoy making colage greeting cards. We cut pictures out of magazines, shapes from different decorative papers, ribbon, buttons etc. and glue them onto blank white greeting cards. Sometimes we will also use little twigs or leaves we found outside.
During the summer my kids love to catch bugs, frogs and lizards and make "homes" for them. At night of course, those creatures have to go back to their real homes. Other than that swimming and sprinkles are always a favorite.
Love to see your compiled list once it's done.
A great thing that I started doing was Muffin Tin Monday. The basic idea is you serve your children lunch in a muffin tin. They get smaller portions & are often more open to trying new things. It makes lunch time fun & exciting. Sometimes we do themes (from http://michellesjournalcorner.blogspot.com/) & other times there are no themes. My link is http://mommy-guru.blogspot.com where I have posted the muffin tins that my kids have enjoyed. They get so excited for Monday & my four year old won't let me forget!!
There are so many things I love to do with the kids. It is the spur of the moment jump in leaves, go fly a kite, let's make muffins moments that they will remember and that I love so much! Here are some links. ~Kelly
http://deniablydomestic.blogspot.com/2009/06/not-too-hot-to-sew.html
http://deniablydomestic.blogspot.com/2009/06/blue-plate-mondays-oatmeal-blueberry.html
http://deniablydomestic.blogspot.com/2009/06/vtt-pitcher-love.html
http://deniablydomestic.blogspot.com/2009/04/sunday-at-home.html
http://deniablydomestic.blogspot.com/2009/01/birthday-reflection.html
http://deniablydomestic.blogspot.com/2009/01/and-winner-is.html
thanks for your ideas so far! I will definately share my compiled list when I am done! :)
Keep them coming.... :)
On Christmas eve My son and I bake cookies for Santa. I always take a picture and eventually I am going to make him a book with recipes and the pictures that go with it.
We also do story time at the library.
One of the things I like to do with my girls is to bake. I have recently found a great, easy and fun chocolate cake recipe that my girls really enjoyed. I blogged about it a couple of days ago. (Obviously you omit the alcohol for the kids version.) I also like to go on bush walks with them and where we live there are lots of walks to old gold mining sites so its educational too.
We like to make a craft or treat for a friend or relative and take it to them to make them happy. It's always exciting for the kids to share and think of others.
One thing I did to keep in contact with cousins from other states was make a book about each of my kids, then I sent a template of it to the cousins for them to make, and then we exchanged them through the mail. Here is the link that I printed out: http://www.kidprintables.com/allaboutme/
I included a couple of pics too. It was fun to ask the kids questions and get their answers.
Halloween is one of our favorite times around here, so last Halloween I planned to do a different activity every day of Oct. I blogged the activities here (includes links): http://kcmcmillanfamily.blogspot.com/2008/09/31-days-has-october.html
Picnics in the living room for days that are too hot or too cold.
Anything with marshmallows. :)
Twister
Make up stories together. We did this the other night for at least an hour.
Hold a Kiddie Olympics http://kcmcmillanfamily.blogspot.com/2008/08/kiddie-olympics.html
Museusm, libraries, parks, pools, etc.
Run through the sprinklers. Mom runs through too. It's always more fun if Mom gets soaked too!
Everyone put on aprons and help clean up the house. Aprons just make it more fun and "official." I don't know...it just does. So maybe you could sew some aprons together...or at least go to the fabric store and let the kids pick out what fabric they want for their aprons.
Okay, wow, sorry I'm so long-winded.
Don't laugh .. Maddie's favorite things to do is "play shop" "The Polka Dot Shop" to be exact. We set up a registar {Barbie with the mic} and play boutique. She comes in looking for a job and tells me her qualifications and we interview. {she is 7}we find items , tag them with prices, she works on sewing machines AND we COUNT MONEY!!!!!! She also is a little author so we are writing books and illustarating them!!
We also love Muffin Tin Mondays and do them everyweek. (http://jandhclark.blogspot.com)
When we FINALLY had some rain this week we put on rain coats and did an outdoor art project. I got watercolor paper and dropped dots of food coloring on it. Then I let the boys hold it in rain and splatter of the rain drops on the colors made art. You could also use a spray nozzle on your water hose if it's not raining.
My husband plays poker with his friends once a month, so these nights are designated Mommy and Sons date nights. We either make smores (using the flame from my gas stove top) or go get Hawiain Shaved Ice (when it's super hot). Then we make a tent in the living room and watch a movie together.
We also love to go to the library and I let the boys pick out a kid's arts and craft book and then pick a project that they want to do. They always love that.
here's a link to a fun (and super sweet) rainy day activity: http://60piggies.blogspot.com/2008/06/diversionary-tactics.html
can't wait to see your completed list! yay! :)
My idea takes a little more preparation and planning but my kids love it and look forward to it. They go to year-round school & have three-week breaks throughout the year. I've always kept our days somewhat structured & organized although it may not look like it to an outside observer. :) This past year we started doing theme days on Tuesdays & Thursdays. The kids never know what it's going to be. Some of them we've done are space, under the sea, bugs, robots, dinosaurs and pirates. Horse day is up next. I visit the dollar store & party store to pick up things for basic decorations and then plan different snacks, crafts & activities along with books & movies from the library. They're always really fun (& educational!) days!
Here are some links to a couple of our theme days -
http://kellymonkeybusiness.blogspot.com/2009/05/youre-bugging-me.html
http://kellymonkeybusiness.blogspot.com/2009/02/can-you-do-robot.html
http://kellymonkeybusiness.blogspot.com/2009/02/yo-ho-yo-ho-pirates-day-for-us.html
http://kellymonkeybusiness.blogspot.com/search?q=dinosaur+day
One more thing we did this weekend was get the karaoke machine out. The kids love singing (at the top of their lungs) and will do it forever. My kids fave thing to sing to? Mamma Mia. They are 5 and 3, so it's so funny to me that they love it so much! We got our machine pretty cheap from Walmart, but I've also seen some at Costco that are just the microphone that you plug into the TV and the music is automatically displayed on the screen, so you don't have to have a big machine to store. Wish I'd have seen that first. :)
My kids and I love to go letterboxing. It's like a little treasure hunt. Read about it at letterboxing.org. I also posted about one of our adventures last summer here: http://purpleflowers-orangetea.blogspot.com/2008/07/banishing-boredom.html
(and I love your blog, by the way!)
I did my thesis on teaching science and math concepts to kids 6 weeks - 6 years. One of my favourite things to do is kitchen science. Get out mixing bowls, spoons, etc. and non toxic pantry items to mix together. One example is baking soda and vinegar! Another thing I love to make is Oobleck, it keeps kids busy for hours!
mommyguru.blogspot.com all things are kids projects that are easy and fun.
Take an empty egg carton, color each compartment a different color and go for walks and discover things in nature that match that color. What fun to see if you can find all 12. And, just watch as the weeks go by the different things you will find to match the colors!
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