Activities for children
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TV ClubHouse: Archives: Activities for children
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Archive through September 22, 2002 25   09/22 01:01pm

Secretsmile

Sunday, September 22, 2002 - 01:59 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
War, you know I've been a stay home mom and foster mom for the last 10 years. I never had a big budget for entertaining my kids but I did manage to keep them busy.

Blocks, blocks and more blocks! LOL, the multi-colored wooden blocks. Blocks are best for math skills and for the child actually playing with the toy rather than doing the playing for them.

We had theme block projects that often over ran the living room. I'd ask them to build me a city, and they'd add post office, schools, banks, streets on which match box cars ran.

We've had school buildings, zoo's , ranches, and disney world. Blocks are unisex, the girls loved to design mansions and the boys race tracks.

Baking and cooking is a great way to teach math skill and oraganization skill, and even tho it's a mess, sometimes letting them make up food is fun too.

Another on going project was the garden. We weren't huge gardeners but they kids used empty egg cartons and potting soil to grow flowers and start the few vegtables we did plant each year.

I also had my children write me books. I would staple pages together and they would write and illustrate their own bedtime stories. They have to read them to you so it doesn't matter how the words are formed. I found this give me insight on what was going on in their lives in their view. It also made reading and writing second nature to them. Something my collage age daughter thanks me for.

One last thing, I always encourged dress up, I'd make capes and got hats and lots of kewl things at yard sales. Every day we would all dress up (yeah me too) and dance to songs.

Maybe these are odd toys for today's child, but it worked for me. LOL.

Deeya

Monday, September 23, 2002 - 01:00 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
War,

Along with the Christmas gift theme, you can get the kids to make the wrapping paper (stamps, paint, butcher or brown wrapping paper)... thre are also lots of instructions on line for making the gift bags... same thing.. let the kids decorate them..

Some fun gifts for grandmothers, moms etc is to use the kids handprints to make shirts .. either put the handprints all over.. or use the handprints to create a wreath design..

Kids can make their own ice cream by sitting on the floor and rolling a coffee can that has ice and a smaller can inside (the ice cream makings are in the smaller can).. instructions on line (I can find them if you want them)..

Let them help make pizza for dinner one night... lots of family fun involved in decorating the top of a pizza pie..

If there are other neighborhood kids, it's always fun to put on a "production" for the families.. they can sing, dance, tell jokes... a little variety show is always great.. And of course rehearsal is active and time consuming..


Of course we entertained ourselves a lot too.. with legos, lincoln logs, race tracks, army men, barbie dolls.. Oh.. find some big moving boxes.. let them make forts.. and have secret clubs..
you name it.. we did it..

Jkm

Monday, September 23, 2002 - 01:29 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Get a subscription to Family Fun magazine -- it has had so many ideas that we have used. They have a wonderful website for ideas from crafts to kids cooking ideas.

Also - I know they are young, but with scouts I found a website that leads to many, many ideas:
www.scoutingweb.com

Look at the arts and crafts stuff and even the service ideas -- all kinds of things young kids can do.

Wargod

Monday, September 23, 2002 - 02:05 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Thanks guys! What great ideas!

The kids are great at playing with each other and by themselves. They have a jar of pennies that they love.....I'm not quite sure what they play with the pennies, I can't figure it out, but both of them enjoy the heck out of it, LOL. Watching them play has always been an educational experience for me. The way they play, and even how each of them are different is interesting.

We tried doing a family scrapbook....kind of a things I did this summer thing, unfortunately, I think that was a project that just didn't keep their attention for long. It was an ongoing thing, and they got bored not seeing it done after about a week. I now keep that myslef, LOL.

Dress up isn't a favorite here.....thats because little miss kota prefers to be butt naked. I try to encourage panties with her, but man, take your eye off her for one minute, she's back to being naked!

I'll check the websites out later this week. I still haven't made it to Michaels or the teacher supply store yet.....I prefer to do my shopping alone, and haven't had much chance with going by myself this week, lol.

I do have one question......its a cooking type project. I remember as a kid making something....I can't remember if it was cookie dough or something like that. We shaped them like Christmas ornaments, baked them, then painted them. When they came out of the oven, they were rock hard. Does anyone have any clue what I'm talking about, lol? WHen I asked my mom about this, she looked at me like I was nuts...so I'm assuming we did it with my grandmother or aunt.

Secretsmile

Monday, September 23, 2002 - 02:17 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
War, I have that recipe, it's rather long I'd rather scan it and e-mail it to you.

Wargod

Monday, September 23, 2002 - 02:38 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
That's great, Secret! Email is on its way! Thank you!

Sia

Monday, September 23, 2002 - 11:03 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
We have plenty of VHS tapes at our house and are just starting to build our DVD collection, but one of my kids' favorite rewards is a "special movie" from the library. I allow them to pick ONE VHS per week from the library during the eight-week run of StoryTime in spring and fall, and they watch each other's movies together. It's pretty cute; sometimes they ask for popcorn and make it an event. It's an even bigger deal if we have a family-night with Daddy and the kids and me and we watch a DVD in our bedroom on our bigger TV with a bowl of hot popcorn for everybody. We watched the cartoon version of "Lord of the Rings" and enjoyed that as a family recently.

The kids really like it when I special-order a movie for them from the library; we very rarely go to the theatre, so I watch at Amazon.com to see when movies are due out on VHS/DVD, then make sure I'm one of the first to reserve a copy through my library. The waiting lists often have names on them even before the movie has actually been purchased by the library.

When the weather is too rainy or cold to be outdoors to play, kids just LOVE going to an indoor play-space like you find at Burger King or McDonald's. We plan our shopping trips to incorporate a lunchtime stop at a place where the kids can burn off their energy and play with other children. If I'm not in a big hurry, I can spend time while they play cleaning my purse, organizing receipts, making shopping lists, writing a note or two to be mailed. A reward-visit to a play-space is just the incentive my kids need when we're headed to the doctor's office; we often take Granny with us so I have a chance to visit and chat with my Mom and I won't have to sit there all alone while the kids romp.

Wargod

Monday, November 04, 2002 - 12:53 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Ok, so here's the deal. I've already decided that the kids will be doing crafts for family and friends for Christmas. But, we're turning it into a group/fun time for them. Caleb will be out of school for 6 (very long!) weeks starting the Friday before Thanksgiving, as will one of my nephews. Once a week, I will have my two kids, my neice (3,) and two nephews (1 & 1/2 and 6) over to my house. I plan on it being a busy, fun day for the kids. Each week we will do a different craft for friends/family that the kids will give as Christmas presents.

I've found a few crafts for them to do...paper reindeers (tracing their shoes and hands,) home made Christmas cards, Angel ornaments, and candle holders. The little one I know won't be too interested in most of it, but I'm trying to come up with some stuff he can do, but would also like a few more crafts. I'll also be throwing in fun activities to our days with decorating sugar cookies, watching Christmas movies, and reading Christmas stories. (I'm a huge kid at heart when it comes to Christmas! I love this stuff, LOL.)

Hehe, call me a nut, but I'm also planning one night for the three cousins to sleep over, so that we can take them looking at Christmas lights, camp on the floor, and watch even more movies.

Whit4you

Friday, December 13, 2002 - 05:53 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
When I was younger I made a list of every free activity for a kid to do - made a copy for all my friends for their XMas present. It was called "Mom I'm Bored" anytime the kid seemed bored they could say 'pick something from column 2' or 'pick something on the list that begins with B' or whatever.

Everyone liked my list so much I eventually made a few dozen copies and sold them through the nickle nick (just enough to spread the idea around some)

Anyhow somewhere - I still have that list I think - I'll see if I can find it and list some of the things off here....>:)

Twiggyish

Friday, December 13, 2002 - 06:58 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Great ideas Whit! I tell my daughter when she's bored that it is the best time to be creative and invent something fun.