A Crayon and A Box

It can be hard to keep children of all ages busy day after day after day. Get creative with items you have around the house. Keep cardboard boxes, give kids markers, or crayons, and let them have at it. Adult supervision with scissors please.

• Make a fort/house with large boxes taped together.

• Make a home/town for little figurines. Boys could do this too for army figures or lego men.

• Make a Dollhouse

• Put your little one in the box and let them practice their coloring skills. Hopefully it will save your floors, tables, and walls, and keep them busy for at least a few minutes. 

DIY MINI Catapult

Snowed in with either snow or cold temperatures? Make this Mini Catapult with your kids and have some fun launching all kinds of things from balled up pieces of paper, to small candies, to beans, or fruit loops. The best part of this is you most likely have everything you need to make it lying around the house somewhere. Make adjustments if needed.

SUPPLIES:

You'll need a small scrap of wood, preferably a small piece of a 2x4 but experiment. I'm sure a variety of things would work. A large popsicle stick, a clothes pin and a lid from a bottle of juice or a jug of milk. 

BUILD:
Glue the clothes pin to the edge of the 2x4

Glue the popsicle stick to the clothes pin.

Glue the lid to the end of the clothespin.

PLAY:

• Place small wadded up papers, fruit loops or cheerios or other pieces of cereal, dried beans, anything small and light into the cup and pull it down a bit. Let go and watch it fly.
• Test your catapult to see how far it can throw your items and them make targets for your kids to try and hit.
• If you homeschool or use this for a learning activity ask question and have to plates one for yes and one for no have the kids try to land their object on the right answer.
• Make several and build lego cities to go with them. See if your kids can practice getting items over lego walls.

Rice and Beans Sensory Bin

Yes it is a mess. Yes you have to clean it up. BUT yes it is fun, and Yes they love it.

                       

Large plastic containers can make for some great fun for little ones. While it was not intended for this little one to end up in the bin he certainly had a good time. Purchase a few bags of white rice (and beans) if you like and dump them into a bin of your choice. Add cars, trucks, or small rakes and shovels. 

Let little hands feel the texture of the rice and beans. They may just love running it through their hands. If you leave the room for any amount of time be prepared to walk back in to this. Kids in the bin throwing rice all over. Luckily it can be vacuumed up if you are done or swept up and put back in the bin for later.

Indoor Fun With Plastic Balls

Most of you most likely have a pack and play or a crib. If you have little ones see if you can get your hands on some of these plastic balls. I have seen them at Walmart. If you don't have balls see what else you can find that would work. Foam blocks or anything somewhat soft. Fill the pack and play or crib with the items of your choosing and let your little ones (one at a time for safety) play, dive, jump, and have a blast in the balls. 

They will love it I promise!

Indoor DIY Felt Snowman

For some reason kids love felt. I don't know if it is the texture or what that attracts them but they seem to enjoy it. If you find yourself trapped indoors due to the cold or you are just looking for some indoor activities this is a fun one that is simple but little ones enjoy. 

You can make this as big as you'd like. If you had a felt Christmas tree for kids to decorate at Christmas this can take it's play and be the size of the small trees or it can be small the size of a 8 1/2x 11 piece of felt. That is the size of mine here.

Simply purchase felt pieces or dig through the scraps that you already have on hand. He does not have to be perfect. I used one ivory piece and then scraps of red, yellow, black, and brown. 

Tell the kids you are building Olaf from Frozen. I have not seen the movie yet but heard he was quite funny!

Instructions and Suggested Uses Follow:

                              2 circles make the head and body

2 small circles make eyes, 3 larger black circles make buttons.

Scraps of brown make a hat and two arms

Small piece of yellow (I did not have orange) makes a carrot nose.

Long skinny piece of red or any color makes a scarf.

Snowman is complete. 

Ideas for Use:

• Put his pieces in the travel size wipe containers and stash him in your diaper bag for portable entertainment.
• Make  a snowman family that little ones can make and mix and match pieces as they would like.
• Put magnets on the back and he can be built on a chalkboard wall or your fridge. 
• Use him to teach little ones shapes and/or colors as you build. Find the biggest circle. Find the square for the hat. Find the rectangle for the scarf. Find the triangle for the nose. 
• Hide the pieces in a room and see if kids can find the pieces and put him together. 
• Use at the end of a lesson of any kind and ask questions. With each correct answer kids get a part to build. Make two and have teams.
• Make it a little smaller and turn it into the pages of a quiet book. A little pocket can hold all of his pieces and kids can pull them out to build on road trips or in places when they need to be quiet.

If you have any other ideas I would love to hear them! What do you do to keep your little ones busy in the winter?

Superhero Game for Little Ones

Superheroes are all the rage at the moment much to every little boys dream. So whether you are looking for ideas for a Birthday party, a Halloween party, or just a snowy day inside this is easy to put together and boys and girls alike will love it. 

Find a clear space in your house preferably on carpet so you don't have sticky goop on your floors when you finally peel this up. Pull out your choice of tape; masking, duct tape-they have every color and pattern imaginable at Walmart, or any other type of tape you have on hand that will stick somewhat well to your carpet. Start by making a large 'X' on the floor. Then make another 'X' on top of that one but shifted a bit so just the centers overlap. Once you have two large 'X's down you can connect them starting in the middle and moving out to the edges. 

 

Your web should look similar to the one below. Sprinkle dollar store spiders and/or bugs on the web and then let the kids have it it. Leave them on their own to develop their own rules or tell them that they must retrieve as many spiders/bugs as possible with out touching the web. You can time them or not. Whatever fits for your age group. 

Have Fun!

DIY Nutty Boats from Walnuts

These boats are so easy to make, kids love them, and you need items that you probably already have on hand. I have used these for several different occasions: Birthday parties, Pirate themed parties, just for fun on a rainy day, I'm church to talk about Noah and the Ark, and around Thanksgiving for the ships that the pilgrims were in. You chose what you want to use it for and I'll show you how to make it. 

This is the way that has worked for me, change it if you have different supplies or different needs. If you are doing it for a larger group I highly suggest doing some of the prep work beforehand so all you have to do is assemble.

Supplies:

Walnuts-one half for each boat

Nut cracker

Scrap paper

Hot glue gun and glue

Markers or crayons

Scissors

Water in a tub, bin, sink, sandbox, etc.

How To:

Crack the walnut and scrape out the nut inside.

Glue the toothpick to the bottom of half of the walnut shell.

Cut small squares from the paper to create sails.

Have children decorate their sail.

Slightly bend the paper and run the toothpick up the middle so it forms a sail. (I like to have extra sails for each child because if their boat happens to tip in the water and get wet they will want another one.)

Take your boats to water and have fun! 

Make sure children are always supervised around water!

More Boredom Busters

Plastic Cup Bowling

A few more ideas for keeping the kids occupied during the winter. Find paper cups of any size. I used large plastic cups from the gas station. Set them up as pins and bowl the afternoon away. Have the kids take turns setting up the pins for each other.

Plastic Cup Toss

Next line the cups up or spread them around in any patter that you like. Have the kids try and toss the ball into the cup. Use a smaller ball like a ping pong ball to make it a bit more difficult. Let smaller children stand closer to the cups so they don't feel frustrated.

Plastic Cup Golfing

Set the cups on their sides and have the children try to roll the ball into the cup. Use a stick of some kind if you would like it to be like actual golfing.

Boredom Busters-Mini Pick up Sticks

Looking for indoor games and activities for your kiddos during the cold winter months? When playing outside is not an option and you've had one too many movies playing try some simple games from items that you most likely have around the house. 

Mini Pick Up Sticks

Just a quick twist on the old classic game of pick up sticks. Use colored toothpicks instead. The toothpicks are most likely in your cupboard already, plus the smaller size is easier for little hands. If you want to make the game harder for older children give them a pair of tweezers and tell them they can't use their fingers. Only tweezers. 

Simply give the kids a handful of toothpicks, toss them into a carpeted surface and have them taking turns trying to pull out a stick without moving any of the other sticks. See how many sticks you can get.