Indoor Activities [Guest Blog Post by Anne Loucks]

After 3 days into this deep freeze, I have succumbed to crafts. I hate crafts. No it isn’t like what your mother said, don’t say hate, say ‘dislike”…I “dislike” that it takes 20 minutes to set up crafts, only for my children to spend a maximum 10-15 minutes doing whatever I prepared. And like the good parent we all are we do this to please our children.

Today we did bubble painting, salt painting, painting over crayons, and picture frames. Grand total =22 minutes FOR ALL OF IT.

• Bubble painting- you add dish soap to paint and water. I used a medium size measuring cup, and a straw. The key to this craft and showing the child how to blow into the straw- not suck in. The bubbles then will over spill in the cup and leave bubble prints on the paper. Another thing- don’t use construction paper for this painting, as it will absorb too much of the water.

• Salt painting- get child to paint picture using lots of water- turning it into a watercolour picture. Sprinkle salt onto the picture- when dry shake salt off. It should leave a speckled look to the painting. In this craft, remember to tell children not to lick fingers full of salt.

 

• Painting over crayons- get child to write name/ draw a picture and then paint a light wash over the picture. The wax will repel the paint so they can still see the crayon. This craft can be done with younger ones as well as older children.
• Picture frames -we did with stickers and paint. For older children you can get podge from a local craft store and put different layers of tissue on the frames/ or magazine pictures.

For younger children:

• Bath Play – run a bath, and toss in things they don’t usually get to play with; baster, egg beaters, lots of cups. Also you can get H2O Goo from local toy stores (I got mine at Tagalong toys), you can use it in the bath, or place in big dish pan with a shower curtain underneath to protect floor. Hours of fun.

For older children:

• Memory game (we place 5 things on a tray-get them to look at it for 10 seconds) go away, and when they come back you have taken 1-2 things off tray. See if they can guess what you took.
• Angry birds with blacks and stuffies. We take all our blocks, and make a big tower, and add little people or penguins. Children sit at the line, and have to toss stuffies to see if they can knock down the “birds”.

Anne Loucks (Chiquitababy on twitter)