Top 10 Quick and Easy Kid Activities For Those Long Weekends
With the holidays quickly approaching, it's likely that you'll
have some unscheduled 'down-time' with your child where you
don't have anything actually planned. Just because you don't
have any planned activities with your child doesn't mean that
they have to languish on the couch in boredom. Take a look at
these quick and easy anytime activities.
1. Make Paper Stuff: It doesn't take a lot of work or
planning for children to create great paper crafts. You can
simply make a lot of paper supplies available and let them go to
town. Provide paper plates, construction paper, scissors,
markers, crayons, glue, stamps, or stickers and let them make
their own creations.
2. Paint Something: Kids generally love anything that
has to do with painting. You could give them some finger paints
and paper, provide water colors, or even let them paint up some
scraps of wood or rocks. When given a choice between painting or
carving their pumpkins each year, my kids always choose
painting... kids LOVE to paint!
3. Pound Some Clay: There's just something about
manipulating modeling clay that kids find appealing (grownups
too!). Give you child a couple of cans of playdough or make up a
batch of salt dough and they'll have a ball. Here's an idea...
make some salt dough, create the figures, dry them out in the
oven, and then paint them to combine painting and modeling!
4. Have A Puppet Show: You can make puppets out of just
about anything you have lying around the house... recycled
bottles, wooden or plastic spoons, paper bags, craft sticks,
etc. all work as a good base, then add paper, felt, yarn, wiggle
eyes, or other objects to make the puppet. Once the puppets are
done, the back of the couch, a table, or even an old box
provides a great puppet theater.
5. Play Dress-Up: Children love nothing better than
dressing up and pretending to be someone else. We keep all our
old Halloween costumes in our dress-up box, but you could also
let the kids dress up in old clothes that you're going to throw
out anyway. An impromptu game of dress-up is always a fun
activity.
6. Outside Drawing: Give the kids a bucket of sidewalk
chalk, turn them loose outside, and they'll play for hours
drawing on the sidewalks, driveway, and just about anything else.
7. Make Contraptions: Older children will really love the
idea of making inventions out of recyclable materials. You'll
need recycled toilet paper tubes, paper towel tubes, wrapping
paper tubes, plastic bottles, and other appropriate recyclables
along with some tape, scissors, and marbles. Tape the tubes
together to make a long runway that starts at some high point
(like a chair) and eventually ends at the floor. When complete,
roll the marbles through the tubes to test your contraption. You
child may even think of other types of contraptions based on
this idea.
8. Nature Walks: This may seem silly, but your kids will
love spending time with you doing this... all you have to do is
take your child for a stroll in your neighborhood or at a park.
Spend time talking about things you observe as you walk and take
your time. When you're done you could write about what you saw,
draw pictures, collect found objects and make an art piece.
Don't forget to bundle up in inclement weather.
9. Paper Airplanes: Gather up a pile of paper and make
paper airplanes with your child. Take turns flying them and test
out which techniques work the best. You could even take turns
flying them off a balcony or deck to really add to the
experience. Better yet, pre-purchase a book of directions for
making paper airplanes and work your way through the book
together.
10. Create An Obstacle Course: This idea may be a little
messy, but your kids will love it. Create an obstacle course,
inside or outside, using objects around the house, then take
turns navigating the course for time. You could crawl under
tables, over chairs, around objects, etc. all the way to the
finishing line.
There are probably a lot of other great ideas that aren't listed
here, but this should get you thinking. The REAL idea here is to
spend some time with your child and let them be creative while
you're doing it.
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