Go outside! There are tons of things to do outside but one less obvious thing may be to become explorers. It may seem like you know your neighborhood but try looking a little bit closer.
- Pretend to be ants and look at things from the ground. Discuss what it would be like to be so small. If you don't know a lot about ants, look them up on the internet or in a book. You'll both learn something.
- Collect leaves or rocks and compare them. Try to find out which tree the leaves came from.
- Take an alphabet walk. Find something that starts with an A (ant), then a B (ball) and so on.
- Cut a paper towel tube in half and tape the two pieces together to make binoculars. Take them birdwatching and record what you find.
Another idea is to make an idea box. Give your kids an empty tissue or shoe box and ask them to decorate it.
Then together, come up with ideas, write them on strips of paper and put them in the box. On days when they are having a tough time deciding what to do, they can draw an idea out of the box.
Here are some ideas to get you started:
- Have one person hide a kitchen timer. The others have to find it by listening to the ticking sound.
- Use sidewalk chalk to create a city with roads and stores. Use toy cars, animals and people to play with the city.
- Cut drinking straws apart and tape them into people and animals. You could even add them to your city.
- Read and act out out a favorite story.
- Create a fort by putting a blanket over a table and have a picnic lunch under there.
- Spray shaving cream onto a cookie sheet and let the kids draw in it with their fingers.
- Make a treasure hunt. Use picture clues if your kids are too young to write.
- Bake cookies or make a snack together. Makinglearningfun.com has several kid friendly recipes.
Whenever you think of a new idea or come across one in a magazine, write it down and add it to your box.
We would love to hear what your family does on "boring" days!
