At-Home Activities

Staying Home Recently, we have been feeling so much pressure to register, to organize play dates, to structure. What about spontaneity? Learning through play? We have been soliciting ideas for fun, learning-enhancing activities that can be done with little or no cost. Allison McDonald, of No Time For Flash Cards, says: “Pretend play offers young children a chance to practice skills within their own frame work and rules , so let them set the boundaries, make suggestions if they need it but follow them, not the other way around.”

Here’s what we’ve come up with so far:

1. Grocery store. Empty your recycling box, and set up a grocery store with the kids. A cardboard box or stroller could become a grocery cart, and pennies in a ‘cash register’ and ‘wallet’ are a nice touch. You could even get more complicated with receipts and price stickers to do some math work. At many ages you can use this as a tool to learn counting, money management, and creativity. If we want to bake a cake, what do we need?
2. Hide the toys. Make a scavenger hunt with favourite toys. (like an Easter egg hunt anytime of the year!)
3. Allison from Stylekid makes playdoh (see our great recipes) from scratch and puts it into glass jars with recipe tags for birthday party giveaways.
4. Sue from Raspberry Kids plays Clues. She draws up paper “clues” of objects around her house and then turns off the lights. The kids have their flashlights (ecotronic ones from Raspberry Kids of course!) and she gives them their first clue. They figure out what the image is and then they go to it to find their next clue. At the end the kids get a ‘You Win’ drawing with a happy face and we will give them a small treat.
5. Coffee grind Sensory Table, from www.notimeforflashcards.com Gather your materials. Allison saved up 3 days worth of used coffee grinds. You will also need a tub, some coffee scoops (anything will do) and some mugs. Explore! There is no wrong way to do this. Her son did a lot of filling and dumping to start with. After the sensory exploration you can feed your garden with the coffee grinds.
6. Use alphabet flash cards, and pick a different one every day. You must do something that starts with the letter. ‘P’ could be highlighted for an activity like Picking blackberries, or Playing the Piano.
7. Play coffee shop. Kitchen mugs, pretend sugar, cappuccino foam, and flavours, an apron and a menu.
8. Grab a Nature Bag and get outside.
9. Plant a salad garden. Lettuce is fast and easy to grow, then invite some other kids over to pick it and do a big salad bar.
10. Movie theatre. Have you played soccer all day and just need to sit down? Why not turn family movie night into a game. Have the usher seat you (with a flashlight of course), have a server bring popcorn, or go to the snack bar during an intermission.

There are lots of cool ways to spend your time at home. For free. No registration required.

7 Comments »

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Pingback by Explaining Death to Children | UrbanMommies — July 21, 2009 @ 10:03 pm
The coffee thing sounds interesting. Kids are always smelling coffee beans (okay, I do it too and I’m 25) so I bet they’d like this. I’ll have to try it because I stay at home and sometimes we really get stuck for an activity idea!

Good luck in the contest. I entered too :-)

Comment by Jenny — November 20, 2009 @ 5:44 pm
I really like how imaginative and sensory these are. I feel like I need to get over my fears of making a mess and my inhibitions about playing wholeheartedly. Because when I do, my 2-year-old has such a great time! Thanks for all the ideas.

Comment by Lauren @ Hobo Mama — November 23, 2009 @ 10:36 pm
These are some fabulous ideas. My girls particularly love to play grocery store. This along with ‘restaurant’ are two of their favourite games. :)

Thanks for your submission to our contest and good luck!

Comment by Tamara @ ParentingByNature.com — November 26, 2009 @ 6:45 pm
[...] ideas on how to spend some non-electricity time with your kids.. We also have some great ideas on eco-friendly activities to do with kids to help get in the spirit during the whole [...]

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