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As a homeschool mom, February and March were tough months. The weather in the Midwest can
be brutal. Being in the house all day can make mom and kids squirrelly. I purposed to intentionally have some fun activities in my mom bag of tricks to bring some joy to dreary days.
- Play red light/green light. Take a Popsicle stick and green and red construction paper and construct a stop and go sign. When you flash the stop sign, your child has to freeze in position. When you flash the go sign, she can move about.
- Let your children have a pillow fight. Join in!
- Let your child help you fold towels fresh from the dryer. Show her how to do it, and then don’t criticize the job she does. Let this become one of her chores.
- Get a play telephone or an unused real telephone and let your child practice dialing 911 (where available) and your home phone number. A good way to memorize a phone number is to put it to the tune of “Twinkle, twinkle little star” with your own made-up ending. We sing, “Seven – – – – – – , that’s the way my phone number goes.”
- An old typewriter is a treasure! Children love pecking out letters or banging the keys, with or without paper. You can often pick up an old machine at a garage sale.
- Teach your child her address. Turn it into a familiar song if that will help her remember.
- Make a faces mural. Collect all kinds of faces from newspapers and magazines. Mount them on a large piece of cardboard. This can be an ongoing activity. Talk about how there are all kinds of different people in the world.
- Put a line on the floor with masking tape. Walk the line, jump over the line and practice balance skills.
- Use English muffins and canned or squeeze bottle pizza sauce to let your child create her own personal pizza. She can choose any topping she wants.
- Put some small objects into a pillow case. Let your child reach in and try to identify the objects without looking. Start with a block, a comb, a banana, a crayon.
- Cut a shamrock shape into a potato half and make shamrock prints for St. Patrick’s Day. Or cut a shamrock into a sponge to sponge paint.
- Make a clothespin butterfly. Dip a coffee filter in spring colors of food coloring. Let dry. Wrap a pipe cleaner around clothespin for antenna. Wad up the coffee filter and push into clothespin. Make several and hang them outside to remind you that spring is indeed coming.
- On St. Patrick’s Day, make some green scrambled eggs and ham and read the Dr. Suess story of the same name.
- Use a colorful sheet as a parachute. Lift it up and down with your child and let her run under and around it. Invite some neighbor kids for some added fun.
- Draw a simple lamb figure on a piece of construction paper. Let your child glue cotton balls on for his fur. Use two clip—on clothespins for legs.
- Try to find a forest preserve or farm that does maple syruping. Bundle up and go observe and taste. Then serve pancakes or waffles with syrup.
- Make your own colored glue by adding food coloring to white glue. Use to paint or make collages. Children love the color variety
- Cut plastic straws into 1 inch pieces. Let your child string them to make a necklace.
- Make a box train. Collect shoe boxes, oatmeal boxes and others. Attach in a line with string. Decorate.
- Start a collection of small rocks you have found on your walks. Store them in an egg carton.
- Make toothpick letters. Put some toothpicks on the table and ask your child to make a letter of the alphabet using them.
- Dip a Q—tip in glue and let child paint or draw. Then sprinkle glitter on the paper for a shining treat.
- Play hide and seek! Children squeal with delight as they race around the house looking for you. Give them a turn to hide as well.
- Have a picnic on your living room floor and talk about your special activities planned for the summer. Make this as realistic as possible. Drag the picnic basket out of the garage and make some lemonade.
- Buy any color streamers whenever you can find them on sale. Here are just a few streamer ideas:
- Make a streamer skirt. Make a circle of paper to fit over your child’s waist and tape streamers all around.
- Tape a streamer to a stick and wave it in the air. Take a walk in the neighborhood and enjoy the March wind.
- Hang a line of streamers in the doorway and let your child run back and forth through the streamers.
- For the child who is too young for hopscotch, draw a daisy scotch on the ground. Make a LARGE daisy on the ground with nine petals. Number them 1 — 9 with a 10 in the center. Have your child start at 1 and jump to each number. She can practice counting as well as physical agility.
- Save an empty salt or oatmeal box. Make a slit in the top for a bank. Decorate the box with paint or papers.
- Teach your child to use a broom and let her practice in your kitchen or outdoors. If possible, buy a child-sized broom and dustpan.
- Give your child a plastic knife and let her help you cut up fresh fruits for a fruit salad. Add raisins for a special lunch treat.
- Find a loosely fitting blindfold and play a tasting game. Have her guess what these items are as you let her taste them: orange slice, chocolate chip, cracker, banana slice, raisin, olive, etc.
Need some more fun activity ideas? Check out Seasonal Savors.
Until next time, keep savoring!
