10. Make self murals. Lay the child on top of a large piece of paper, enough that you can trace their body with a marker and then tack up somewhere (we used the fence outside) so they can decorate their body with crayons, markers, or paint.
9. Make a batch of edible play-doh.
8. Make Wooden Stick puzzles. Place 8-10 Popsicle sticks side by side. Scotch tape them in position on one side. Turn them over, and draw the outline of a simple picture on the sticks. Let your child color the picture. Then take off the scotch tape and scramble the sticks. Let your child arrange them again into the picture he just colored.
6. Do the animal mix-up craft. Using these templates your kids can create all kind of crazy animals.
5. Hold a texture scavenger hunt. While the kids are off somewhere else, make crayon rubbings of distinguishable surfaces in your house. Let the kids have fun trying to find the objects.
4. Have a taffy pull. The kids get to participate in making the taffy by pulling it over and over until it changes color and texture. The recipe can be a little touchy; so it might be better to experiment beforehand if you are planning to do this for a crowd.
3. Teach them the old fashioned game of pitching pennies. All you need is a bunch of pennies, a wall, and two or more players. For extra fun, let them keep the pennies.
2. Begin a couple of yes/no campfire riddles with your kids. These require no props at all, and can be hours of fun if your kids get into solving the mysteries. Be very firm about not giving away answers until they guess, and you will drive them mad with curiosity (It’s only right after they’ve driven you mad for half the summer!)
1. Make easy and beautiful marbled paper using shaving cream and tempera paint. These papers make great cards, gift wrap, or book covers.
Outdoor Activities:
1. Make Soap Snakes. Cut off the wide end of a plastic water bottle and rubber-band a piece of fabric around the opening. Dip the fabric in some soapy water (use a liberal amount of dish soap) and putting your mouth around the small end of the bottle, gently blow and watch as your long soap snake grows. Sooooo fun!3. Teach them the old fashioned game of pitching pennies. All you need is a bunch of pennies, a wall, and two or more players. For extra fun, let them keep the pennies.
2. Begin a couple of yes/no campfire riddles with your kids. These require no props at all, and can be hours of fun if your kids get into solving the mysteries. Be very firm about not giving away answers until they guess, and you will drive them mad with curiosity (It’s only right after they’ve driven you mad for half the summer!)
1. Make easy and beautiful marbled paper using shaving cream and tempera paint. These papers make great cards, gift wrap, or book covers.
Outdoor Activities:
2. Use the heat to your advantage to make sun-upcycled crayons. We placed our crayon scraps in a bed of tin foil, and they melted in a couple of days, but when the temperatures are in the triple digits I think you could even do away with the tin foil.
3. Play the “Looby Loo” and “Hoky Poky” games in the sprinkler. We've even played water soccer and baseball. It ended up being just funny.
4. Make an outdoor watercolor mural. Hang an old sheet over your back privacy fence and let the kids spray it with paint and water filled spray bottles.
6. Let the kids draw chalk murals on the fence in their swimsuits. When they're done, they can then use the hose to clean their mess then play in the sprinkler.
7. Find out if you really can fry an egg on your sidewalk.
8. Find out if you really can fry an egg on your sidewalk.
9. Send them on a photo scavenger hunt. Have them look for particular colors, shapes, or phenomena that they find in nature.
10. Make an aquascope for viewing all those interesting creatures and plants at the bottom of the pond out back (or take it to Barton Creek to explore underwater there). All it takes is a yogurt container, plastic wrap, and a rubber band!
11. Give them each a can of shaving cream, and let them go crazy spraying each other.
Some of these ideas are gathered together from different stay-at-home moms including myself.
Great Websites:
Having Fun at Home
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