A whole week ahead of you with your kiddos and nothing to do? Here are some ideas to get you motivated. Many of these cost little or no money and are guaranteed to strengthen your relationship with your kids. Have fun and enjoy your time!
1. Play the Dress Up Game!
This game is so much fun. You grab a bunch of play clothes (or old clothes) and a timer for play(you determine the time based on the players. Older kids less time, younger kids more time.) Set the timer and everyone works together to dress one person up in a unique way. Use a shirt as a hat or a wig. Use pants as pig tails. When the timer goes off admire your ‘creation’. Take turns so that everyone gets a chance to be the model! This is a great party or camp game too! You can even play it as a competition with judges that give prizes like “The Most Creative Use of a Clothing Item” and “I Would Actually Wear this.” Be sure to have your camera ready because this game produces GREAT pictures!
2. Draw outdoors
Photo Credit: Santa Cruz Museum
Get a different perspective on art and the outdoors. Take crayons, water color paint, chalk, or just pencils outside and draw something. Show your kids pictures of Georgia O’Keeffe’s work from this website. Or go to the zoo and draw some of your favorite critters. We have a zoo membership to the LA Zoo and my kids love to take their sketchbooks there and just visit a few animals and draw. People stop and comment on the beauty of their work. Noticing the beauty of nature and the natural world has a calming effect on my kids and I love the discussions we have. I bet you will too!
3. Build a Fort
Photo Credit: http://pinterest.com/pin/343258802819169238/
Whether you use sticks from outside and a blanket to make a teepee or the cushions from the couch, making a fort is always a good time. Kids LOVE to pretend that they are camping or adventurers. We recently built a fort with newspaper. Just tightly roll a sheet of newspaper and tape the end. Then attach another rolled tube to the first tube with tape. (We used masking tape.) Making triangles is the easiest way to build a solid structure. Before we knew it we had a building with a roof. We taped flat sheets of newspaper to the ‘roof’ and made a cool fort. The kids used it as a dog house, a camping tent, as a prehistoric cave, as an alien outpost…they used it until it fell down. It was a ton of fun!
4. Play with Ice!
Photo Credit: http://pinterest.com/pin/343258802819159282/
My kids LOVE this activity! When we do this we freeze a lot of containers with ice. Cups, plastic shoe boxes, and yogurt containers. By the way, the plastic insert in the Qtip packaging makes great bricks! Then they take their ice blocks and go outside and play. We have played hockey in the driveway with some of the round ‘puck’ shapes. We play archeologist with the ice that has frozen creatures in it. We build igloos with the brick shapes. This activity is great on a hot summer day.
5. Play Blanket Ball!
Photo Credit: http://metoo.clubspaces.com/
Get a blanket or sheet and use it like a party parachute. Have your children grab the ends and bounce a ball on top of it. See how long you can keep the ball on! Or if you have a large group of children you can make two groups each with their own blanket and try to pass the ball between the two groups. We have played this as a birthday party game but I can see it as a team building activity for a scouting group too.
These activities are sure to keep you and your kiddos busy for hours and best of all you will have a great time doing them. Make sure you have a camera handy because you will be making memories!